Why I will vote for a third party

I found myself the other night stuck in the middle of another heavy political talk. My counterparts in this were a fellow norteamericano and a Swedish traveler I recently met. And I use ‘stuck’ in the loosest of possible ways, for in reality I seemed to be pursuing the debate as hard as the others. In fact the Swede’s role mainly consisted of being an attentive listener. I can understand that, the world of US politics is baffling enough its own citizens let alone foreigners. So what issue had delved so whole-heartedly into you might be asking. Voting. Specifically using voting as a means of changing the present two party structure dominant in U.S. Politics. We had earlier dismissed the idea of revolutionary overthrow of the existing order as an unlikely scenario for the time being so we where pretty much left with voting as the only alternative.
Basically it came down to this; the system desperately needs a change. This involves new groups coming into power. This is accomplished by replacing this the exiting powers (democrats and republicans). The next step, well that’s where we diverged. I advocated voting for a third party while my friend favored the Democrats. The Swede didn’t understand the problem.
Well my friends the problem is like this. The argument for voting for the Democrats often follows the logic of it’s the lesser of two evils, that the Dems aren’t really giving the people what they want or even offering a divergent alternative in most cases, but that is still better than letting the Republicans run things.
I hate that argument; it misses the whole goddamn point. We are electing these people to represent our interest and us and yet they consistently do not. They show no sign of beginning soon. They show every sign of continuing on the same old course as they always have, following an agenda that, while it obviously reflects somebody, it clearly is not the majority of U.S. citizens. This is reflected over and over in multiple public opinion polls on many issues. Just to give one, nuclear disarmament.
These people do not deserve our votes and will not receive mine barring drastic changes in party politics in the future. I am voting for a third party. “But voting for a third party is like a vote against the Democrats” often goes the rebuttal. I got some news for you, voting for a Democrat is like voting for a Republican, they are the same thing. Two wings of the same party, a right wing and a central wing. Think I am wrong on this? Who’s the one always telling you that voting for a third party is a waste of a vote: the Dems or Republicans. Who controls campaign finance reform and public campaign finance power: the Dem and Republican controlled Congress. And what two parties have historically teamed up to prevent a third from gaining a foothold: you guessed it, the Dems and Republicans. (For a perfect example of this see Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing ’72)
It’s clear to me that these two parties have a very strong interest in remaining in power together and only together. In this way they can pursue their own agenda without fear of a challenge, for even if the people are dissatisfied and vote them out at the next election it is assured that another will take their place. And since it is congress and not the President that has the power to change the financing rules we can be assured that no change will be forthcoming soon. Just look at all the money Obama and Clinton have raked in already, $25 million plus and we are still 1 1/2 years from the election.
Any expectation that the stranglehold the two parties have on the system is going to come from with in is pure fantasy. It will clearly have to come from without and this can only be accomplished with the rise of other parties into the legislative branch and hence congress. This is why voting for a third party is not a waste. It is essential if there is to be a change. It will not happen at once, but it must start from somewhere and build momentum. The main point is it must come from the outside the current parties.
I will leave you with a quote from Trotsky I recently came across that seemed to capture the spirit of my feelings well. He was writing about the growing unrest in Spain the1930’s before civil war erupted there, but it still is relevant today.
“It is needless to say that the democratic slogans under no circumstance have as their task to draw the proletariat closer to the republican bourgeoisie. On the contrary, they create the basis for a victorious struggle against the bourgeoisie of the Left, making it possible at every step to disclose it’s anti-democratic character. The more courageously, resolutely and implacably the proletarian vanguard fights for the democratic slogans, the sooner it will conquer the masses and undermine the ground beneath the feet of bourgeoisie republicans and socialists reformists, the more faithfully their best elements join us, the sooner the democratic republic will be identified in the mind of the masses with the workers’ republic.” – Revolution in Spain (1931)