I agree that third parties are doomed in the short run. But if one considers the People’s Party of the 19th century there is cause for hope. The Populists went into the ether in 1896 but not before features of their 1892 platform pushed elements of both major parties leftward. The Populists foreshadowed the constitutional amendments of the progressive era and provided many of the elements that ultimately became a winning formula for the Democrats in 1932, albeit with the help of the Great Depression. The issue today is, with a full blown dictator in the White House, right wing extremists in control of the courts, and the GOP a thoroughly fascist party, if we can even hope, or have the time, to wait for something like that may happen again.
Totally agree - third parties can cause the other two parties to shift. Ross Perot did the same thing in the 1990s when he pushed both parties towards fiscal austerity. I guess with Musk's party the sad thing is that it doesn't have a desirable ideological agenda that it would be nice to push the other two parties towards. It seems to be driven a lot by his grievance against Trump but ultimately he is pushing very similar politics.
I agree that third parties are doomed in the short run. But if one considers the People’s Party of the 19th century there is cause for hope. The Populists went into the ether in 1896 but not before features of their 1892 platform pushed elements of both major parties leftward. The Populists foreshadowed the constitutional amendments of the progressive era and provided many of the elements that ultimately became a winning formula for the Democrats in 1932, albeit with the help of the Great Depression. The issue today is, with a full blown dictator in the White House, right wing extremists in control of the courts, and the GOP a thoroughly fascist party, if we can even hope, or have the time, to wait for something like that may happen again.
Totally agree - third parties can cause the other two parties to shift. Ross Perot did the same thing in the 1990s when he pushed both parties towards fiscal austerity. I guess with Musk's party the sad thing is that it doesn't have a desirable ideological agenda that it would be nice to push the other two parties towards. It seems to be driven a lot by his grievance against Trump but ultimately he is pushing very similar politics.