We hear much talk about how people are fed up with the extreme partisanship on the political scene today. Many call for electing more moderate and centrists candidates. But will this be the year of the third party? Maybe not.
Peter Hutchinson, Independence Party candidate for Minnesota governor, comported himself quite well in a three-way debate in which the Republican and Democratic candidates wouldn't even look at each other. He has inched up in the polls from seven to nine percent. This despite having appeared all over the state.
I met a man at the SMDC Fitness Center who may be an indicator of the problem. He was talking politics with another man, something about not having good choices in the election. I interjected that he could vote for Harry Welty for Congress.
As we went from machine to machine our conversation continued. Finally I asked him if he had been a Republican; I thought he may have felt left out like Harry. He paused to gather his thoughts and said "Let me tell you something." He went on to say that the Republicans had screwed everything up so badly that he wants them out of power. To do so, he is going to vote for every Democrat he can. Once the Republicans are out of power, then he'll think about other parties.
I'm sure there are people to the right of the center who don't like today's Republicans but will do their best to see that the Democrats don't get into power.
I'm going to favor third-party candidates in my own political activities and votes. We have to start somewhere. But I don't think we'll see real change until some issue comes up that neither of the two entrenched parties is with the majority of the voters. It took a strong abolitionist sentiment, a sentiment that the Whigs and the Democrats did not show, for the Republican party to ascend and elect a President.
