What Are Political Parties For?

for the past year, I have been expressing my skepticism about third party presidential candidates. Most recently, I reported the admitted failure earlier this month of Americans Elect, the most recent delusional party.

In fact, third parties make little sense in a winner-take-all political system. In 1948, two parties broke off of the national democratic party, and Harry Truman won despite their defection.

The last time a third party candidate came close to winning was a century ago, when Teddy Roosevelt was the candidate of the Progressive (or Bull Moose) party. Roosevelt's showing only served to split the Republican vote and bring about the election of Woodrow Wilson.

Some say that Ralph Nader had the same effect by depriving Al Gore of a win in Florida in 2000. A post-election recount of the entire state by a consortium of journalists, though, determined that more Floridians cast votes for Gore than for Bush. This would only have become clear, however, with a complete recount.

There is a new blog that addresses the questions surrounding parties: themischiefsoffaction.com. It is run by a trio of political scientists with a particular interest and background in political parties. I commend it to your attention.