In the course of running for the state legislature most
people have told me that they are excited to see a third option on the ballot,
others have said that we need not an independent candidate but a new third
party. Unfortunately the realities of generating a third party are more than
daunting.
Colorado currently has a handful of efforts designed to
bring a centrist, moderate party into the fold. The Unity Party exists under
such a mission and the byproduct of the recent effort by Americans Elect to
nominate a bipartisan/independent ticket for the presidency has left (if only
on paper) an Americans Elect party in Colorado. There are also better known
alternative parties that usually represent the radical fringes of policy
platforms; Libertarians, Greens, and American Constitution among them.
Not surprisingly there is a problem for the loose coalition
of independent candidates in Colorado up for election in 2012. Unlike the major
parties, though more akin to the people of the state, independents do not
always align on complicated issues. While we are working together for a common
goal, better representation of the American people, we choose a nuanced and
more difficult-to-package style of governance that allows for debate and
expects compromise.
For those hoping to see a third, centrist party in the
United States or just Colorado I would say that a more likely option is to
simply split the Republican Party into a center/center-right GOP and a
far-right Conservative major party. If you took the socially-conservative,
anti-immigration, xenophobic, Tea Party, moral superiority-based elements out
of the Republican Party and left the fiscally conservative, pro-business, state
and local control advocates you would have not only three viable parties but
also what would be a de facto moderate party in none other than the
Republicans. If the Republicans also then adopted a more moderate energy and
environment agenda that sought to expand sustainable energy futures while
keeping energy affordable, while simultaneously protecting both the environment
and the business community you would actually have a force to be reckoned with.
Third parties may only come if they split out of the
existing party elements. Believe it or not more Democrats have defected from
their brand to become independents and independent candidates than have
Republicans, I find that interesting because moderates are more likely to be
squeezed out of the GOP as it becomes increasingly hijacked by the far right.
The trouble with generating a third party from the ground up is two fold:
impatience and money. You cannot start such an effort at the national level and
work your way down. For one thing the money required to do so is extraordinary
and you cannot compete with the two parties we have, their addiction to the
coffers of special interests has left them with a spending power akin to
Scrooge McDuck. Second, it just does not make sense to build a castle in the
sky; a national movement without state-level and local-level, organized support
is doomed to fail. We are impatient in wanting to solve national problems while
ignoring the hard work and political realities required to get there.
Instead independents will need to focus on recruiting
moderates in local and state legislative races to build the foundations
required to stage offensives for state-wide races. If those efforts are
replicated across the Union then a national campaign could be possible, instead
efforts in this year’s election cycle looked to put a presidential ticket
together without grassroots support.
Americans are not built to be complacent creatures. Though
we have let our guard down too long and let our politics deteriorate into an
entertainment sport, the time is fast approaching when the circus performers we
call leaders are swept aside in favor of actual governance and problem solving.
