A Third-Party Opportunity in 2004?
by Jerome Tuccille <mailto:Jerome_Tuccille@…>
by Jerome Tuccille
It's difficult to know whom to despise more these days, conservatives or
liberals. Boy George, the compassionately conservative and hopelessly
tongue-tied occupant of the White House, did us the favor of cutting our
taxes while simultaneously saddling us with a metastasizing federal
government and the worst military quagmire since Vietnam. On the
opposite side of the political divide, we are being asked to choose
among a bevy of Democratic contenders who are unanimous in their
commitment to repeal the Bush tax cuts while begging the hapless UN to
somehow bail us out of the mess in Iraq. From the towering, gaunt, and
gangly John F. Kerry who bears an unfortunate resemblance to the
corpse-like Edmund Muskie, a Democratic hopeful in 1972 who
self-destructed on the campaign trail, all the way down to the freakish
Dennis Kucinich who resembles a mutant from a different solar system
more than he does a flesh-and-blood human being, each candidate is more
dispiriting than the next. The most anti-war among them, Kucinich, is
the most socialistic of the lot, while the most amusing, Al Sharpton, is
also the most unelectable for a host of reasons.
Whether or not Bush emulates his father and fails in his bid for a
second term in 2004 depends primarily on the state of the U.S. economy
and the body bag count out of Iraq. Most elections turn on the economy
as most voters are swayed by pocketbook issues, and current data
indicate that George the Incumbent will have a stronger economy to run
on next year. Still, if the situation in Iraq gets uglier before it gets
better and more middle class Americans turn against the war, Bush could
have a problem on his hands, notwithstanding better economic news. Among
the Democrats, Howard Dean appears to be the only one feisty enough to
fire up his liberal troops and make a serious run against Bush. For
libertarians, a tight race between the Tweedle Dee Republican and a
Tweedle Dum Democrat would offer the best opportunity for a third-party
spoiler role, with the Green Party candidate pulling perhaps two or
three percentage points away from the Democrats, and a viable
Libertarian Party candidate (I emphasize the word viable) breaking the
LP's one-percent stigma and perhaps siphoning two or three percentage
points from the Republican tally. In a close state race (did anyone say
Florida? Pennsylvania? Tennessee? Ohio? Illinois?), these percentages
could be enough to deprive both major candidates of a critical state in
the drive for electoral votes.
To be sure, depriving Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum of a victory only
ensures the election of his major party opponent and hardly constitutes
a victory for Libertarians - or Greens either, for that matter. But in
the absence of real victory (an impossible dream under our two-party
system, particularly in the current political climate), playing the role
of a successful political spoiler is a door prize worth fighting for.
First of all, it's fun, and since we're being taxed to death to support
this creaky, aging, tottering Republic of ours, we might as well extract
a modicum of fun in return. In other words, if the bastards are going to
tax us, they should at least entertain us while they're doing it. Even
the Romans had bread and circuses in their sorry excuse for a Republic,
and it's time to bring on the clowns in twenty-first century America.
Second, and perhaps more important, true spoilers get noticed by
everyone; the liberals have still not forgiven Ralph Nader for
(arguably) tilting the balance to the Bush camp in the last quadrennial
extravaganza, and the LP would bring down the wrath of the entire
Republican establishment if it was the difference between victory or
defeat for Bush in a critical state. For this to happen, the LP needs a
candidate with genuine star power and an uncompromising message - end
the war against Iraq now; end the war against drugs; reform the tax code
and scale back government; privatize social security, health care, and
other so-called entitlement programs. For too many years, the LP has
been fielding candidates who sound like they belong to the classical
liberal wing of the Republican Party.
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0930073258/lewrockwell/>
It's time to get radical! To make some noise! To hammer home an
uncompromising message! And to have some fun while we're doing it!
November 7, 2003
Jerome Tuccille [send him mail] <mailto:Jerome_Tuccille@troweprice.com>
is the author of 21 books, including It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0930073258/lewrockwell/>
, It Still Begins With Ayn Rand
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584450061/lewrockwell/> , and
most recently of Alan Shrugged
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/047139906X/lewrockwell/> , a
biography of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.
Copyright (c) 2003 LewRockwell.com
Mike