Third Party Nostrum

Last months' distressing dispute over the manufactured issue of the debt ceiling has inspired some pundits to fall in with the "third party" nostrum. The latest to join that particular bandwagon is the New York Times' Tom Friedman in a recent column.

The newest wrinkle in this third party scheme is a nationwide primary over the internet.

Friedman seems to think we need a more moderate party. I think a major part of our current problem is that the political process is both dominated by and beholden to monied (especially financial) interests. Moderation won't help that.

As for primaries, they're already pretty open. I think they are a large part of the problem, along with the visible decline of the journalism profession.

A contributing factor for much of the present confusion is the left/right/moderate typology. There are better models of the real political word. One such model is found at The Political Compass, which describes political views on an x-y plot, adding an additional dimension to the usual left/right straight line. Check it out at politicalcompass.org. Take the survey and see where you stand. You might be surprised.

A different approach is taken by the Pew Center for The People and the Press. After every presidential election the Pew Center (and before the the Times Mirror) conducts a detailed survey and provides the results in a report titled Beyond Red vs Blue: The Political Typology. The most recent report, released May 4th of this year, finds that the public is more doctrinaire at each end of the ideological spectrum, yet more diverse in the middle than it has been in the past. The typology, the fifth since 1987, sorts Americans into cohesive groups based on their values, political beliefs and party affiliation.

The most recent survey divides the public into nine groups, one of which, the "bystanders," don't bother voting at all. Of the others, twenty-five percent fall into mostly Republican groups, forty percent fall into mostly Democratic groups, and thirty-five percent fall into mostly independent groups. If we had elections based on proportional representation, the eight groups (other than bystanders) might form the basis for roughly the same number of political parties.

The Pew site offers readers the chance to take a quiz to determine their personal typology. Give it a try.