Need for a Third Party

I was not thinking that it could be Newt leading the charge but he could be a spkesperson for a third party if they did not mind the stain of his removal from the House leadership over that book.

A new party would require people with immediate name recognition, but absent the baggage of past scandals. If the Abramoff business is just the tip of the iceberg, then both parties will look like the scum suckers that they are. In order to be effective, they need to be folks who have the respect of the disenfranchised middle class. Ideally, key members or past members of both parties would be good. We need more outrage to make it happen. More muckrakers in the press. Unfortunately, when the nation feels they are in crisis, there does not sem to be the interest. Perot made good right after the fall of Communism and he hit a chord at that moment in history when business interests were searching for cheap labor. He almost pulled something off but he was by himself without the aid of a third party movement at the grass roots level. That is where it has to start. I have been nibbling at a book about the history of the Whig party. I understand how it came about. There were at least 3 political factions with disparate platforms that ultimately came together including Anti-Masons (big deal in upstate NY and new England), along with State's rights activists in the South and one other group. They all hated the Jackson/van Buren axis and that was the rallying point. They overcame their differences until the abolitionist movement grew too large in the 1850s and the Whigs lost their southern support. Had Henry Clay won the party nomination in the 1840s, they would probably still be the other party today, since he was the ultimate compromiser.

Anyway, folks like Romney in Massachusetts who has the integrity or a Bill Bradley from New Jersey who retired from the Senate in disgust of the realization over how things really worked. Romney may get his day in the sun running for the Republican nomination for Pres, and that would be a start for him. His downside is that the Evangelicals don't trust a Mormon...they look upon them as a cult. Of course, if you listen to Pat Robertson this week, you wonder where he is coming from calling Sharon's cerebral hemorhage, God's wrath. What a nutcase. (I think Sharon was a Fascist, but I would not wish a stroke on anyone).

Newt is a student of American history. I think he would be the type of guy you could sit down and have a six-pack with and argue about American history and the pros and cons of this or that. I think he sees the past as prologue which many seem to ignore. Somehow, he feels he has done his penance and is back out on the street. I don't think he will ever run for anything again but he has a gift whether you agree with him or not. Youmay be surprised, but I like reading Pat Buchanon's column. I know he is an arch conservative to the point of embarassment, but his columns are safe. I don't see him holding ofice either but you can catch his Monday columns on Drudgereport.com. He too is a student of history. Actually Drudge has all the major ones. Here is an example of Buchanan;

www.wnd.com...

We are too deep into crisis now to have a third party rise up at the local level. We have to get through the next cycle of crisis and enjoy the presumed fruits of coming out of that period in one piece.

The period 0f 30-40 years before our civil war when we enjoyed the fruits of expansion, was also a time of religious fervor which sharpened the arguments leading to the battles of the 1860s. It was a time when the paradigm that had been created by the revolution had reached its zenith and the model was now being tested. Similarly, a period after the Civil War, the Gilded Age, led up to a crisis period between 1929-45. These vycles are about 80 years in length. I think we are at the cusp of a real crisis. Third parties do not fare well in a crisis period. The hour is late for something to form now. Maybe after 2025.

Read The Fourth Turning by Strauss. Absolutely fascinating theory about how history repeats itself.

[edit on 27-3-2006 by NoGrinia]