On Third Parties and Primary Challenges

Aug 8th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Matthew Yglesias made an observation recently:

"When I speak ill of the concept of third party presidential campaigns solving anything, someone inevitably brings up the precedent of the Republican Party. 


Quite clearly, Abraham Lincoln and his administration solved quite a bit. This is, in my view, the exception that proves the rule in the true sense of the term.

The crux of the matter is that the GOP, when founded, was a movement of party-switchers from among the ranks of established politicians." EMPHASIS MINE

This could not be more timely. There is a growing whine coming from some disappointed liberals who are calling for a 2012 "alternative" to President Obama. This is not as ridiculous or as potentially self-sabotaging as calls for a primary challenge, but it is close. What's more, in conjunction with one another, these two phenomena could result in yet another third party-driven disaster for the whole country.

John Anderson

Too many people have forgotten that, although Ronald Reagan won re-election by a legitimate landslide, his first term began with a bruising squeaker. One of the nearly unanimously accepted canards of the Reagan mythology is that Carter could not have won. Everyone talks about "malaise," or the failed hostage rescue, or shadowy theories surrounding an "October Surprise."

<-- Remember him?

Nobody talks about National Unity Party candidate John Anderson. Nobody seems to remember the vicious intra-party spectacle that was the 1980 Democratic convention.