What third party?

Every election cycle we hear two things about third parties:

1.) We need one desperately
2.) Pulling the handle for one is throwing your vote away

What is never clear is, what third party is it that we need? To say that we need a party suggests that there is an ideology that is being unrepresented by Republicans and Democrats*. If the call for third parties is anything but philosophical, the voter is simply confusing the need for different elected officials.

The problem with this is (see point two) that most 3rd parties are more like the fringes of the main two. Constitutional (Republican), Libertarian (a little of each) and Green (Democrat). There are others of course, but only the previous three were on enough ballots in 2004 to qualify as "electable" from an electoral college point of view.

So what group needs representation? In my opinion, only Authoritarians.

The Democrats and Republicans are forced into bigtent policies. After all, if you are running for office in a two party system you need 51% of the public to support you. Every two years, in each race, each of the candidates accuse the other person of being who they claimed they were a couple of months earlier to get past the primary process. Hardline positions work on the base, but do not wash well with independents. As such there are many factions within each of the two parties, including, yes, authoritarians.

While both parties share that element, a large voting block of the Democratic base is authoritarian; the Black (and Hispanic to lesser extent) vote. That wing of the base is likely to agree with Jerry Falwell on social issues and Ted Kennedy on fiscal ones.

There are also those who are drawn to the GOP because of religious reasons and do not put as much stock in laissez faire capitalism (pun absolutely intended). For example, they may support government backed subsidies or unions.

So how would the vote shake out if we had a moderate Libertarian party and moderate Authoritarian (the name would have to change obviously--statist)?

--Joey

*Maybe I should say "Conservative and Liberal" instead of Republican and Democrat.