The problem with 3rd Party Egos
Everyone wants to be king, few are willing to do the hard work.
For anyone who has paid attention, they will know that I am working with the Texas Forward Party (texasforwardparty.org), which is the state chapter of the national Forward Party (forwardparty.com). This is because I have come to view both the Republican Party and Democratic Party as broken. They exist in a duopoly that limits outside participation and means we are so often confronted with picking the candidate we dislike the least from the two major parties. So I thought a third party was the best solution.
I still think it is, but the road ain’t easy. Laws are set-up to favor the two established parties and to exclude any competition. That is one thing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on. And unfortunately with the way the voting laws are set-up, third party candidates can have a spoiler effect. Ranked Choice Voting would stop the spoiler effect and open things up, but with only Alaska and Maine using RCV, and Nevada considering it, we in Texas, don’t have that advantage.
But another problem for a third party is ego. Looking at the list of independent candidates trying to get on the November ballot in Texas, I am struck by a strange upside down statistic. There are 39 Congressional seats on the ballot in November, one Senate seat occupied by Ted Cruz and 38 House Congressional seats. Five independents have filed to run for the Senate seat and thirty independents have filed to run for the House seats. Thirty-five independents have registered for 39 seats in Washington.
And how does that stack up against the Texas Legislature. With 150 Texas House seats and 15 Texas Senate seats up for election, how many independents are running - 6. One for the State Senate seat in El Paso, and 5 for Texas House seats.
The Texas Legislature is a low paying job, but it is a necessary job and the fact that only six independents are trying to get elected to go to the state capitol in Austin, versus 35 trying to go to Washington DC says something to me.
Independent candidates want to hit home runs.
The idea of going to Austin and working on local issues doesn’t appeal to them as much as going to Washington does. But, that is the wrong idea. We will not get a real third party, middle of the political spectrum party. without building from the ground up and that means for Texas we need to start in Austin. The goal of moderates should be to get enough people into the state legislatures to break the majority whether it is Republican or Democrat and force the parties to have to start working with the moderates to get things passed.
Afraid about one party forcing through legislation at the state level, then get some moderates in there. Get reasonable people in there who are not enthralled with social media. Who will work and solve things rather than looking for that amazing sound bite or video clip where they can own the other side. We need work horses, not show horses.
I think I am going to pester the Forward Party that our mascot needs to be a draft horse. Clydesdale is the better known variety, but there is the American Draft Horse, which comes in two varieties - Belgian and Cream.
Same thing goes for President. No third party should be putting up Congressional candidates until it has sitting members in it’s state legislature. And no third party should be proposing a presidential candidate until it has sitting members in Congress. But what did No Labels do? Took a swing at the biggest home run of all, thinking that they could put someone in the White House when they have no support in Congress, let alone state legislatures.
No, I’m afraid it is into the trenches for all of us third party hopefuls. Set aside your egos and roll up your sleeves, we have work to do. And focus on unseating some Republican or Democrat who in two years thinks they can run safely in a gerrymandered legislative seats. Seats that would make them safe from the other side, aren’t proof against a run from a moderate third party candidate.
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