The United States has a long history of active third parties.
What does it mean to be a third party?
What have been some of the more prominent third parties in American politics?
The United States has what is known as a two party system, with the two main parties being
the Republicans and Democrats.
However, that does not mean those are the only two parties that exist.
All other parties in American politics are referred to as “third parties”.
This term simply means that they are a political party that is not one of the two main parties.
Third Parties tend to rise up out of necessity.
When a group of people feels that the two main parties are ignoring an important issue,
a third party might rise up around that issue.
This type of party can also come to be known as a “single issue party” since many of
them focus on one issue that is important to them and ignore all other aspects of politics.
There have been many third parties, and single issue parties, form throughout the nation’s
history.
For example, in the 1840s and 1850s, there were a number of different parties created
over the issue of slavery.
It was a topic that the two leading parties of the day, the Whigs and the Democrats, did
not focus on because it was a controversial topic, and there were many opponents and supporters
on both sides.
The Free Soil Party was one anti-slavery party that formed in the 1840s.
The Free Soil Party managed to elect fourteen members to Congress, and the Free Soil presidential
nominee earned more than 300,000 votes in the 1848 election.
Most of those who were members of the Free Soil Party eventually became members of the
Republican Party, which also began its life as an anti-slavery third party.
In the 1850s, the topic of Irish immigration concerned many voters.
As a result, a third party, known as the American Party, was formed.
They sought to curtail immigration, but experienced little success.
Unfortunately, several who were involved with the American Party used violent tactics in
an attempt to prevent Irish Catholics from voting.
When authorities began asking about the group’s activities, party members were told to reply
“I know nothing.”
As a result, this party has come to be known in history as the Know Nothing Party.
One of the most successful third parties in American history was the People’s Party
of the 1890s, also known as the populists.
The populists supported farmers and the working poor.
They promoted the introduction of the income tax, an eight hour workday, and the direct
election of US Senators.
Populists even had a significant impact on the election of 1892.
The populist candidate, James B. Weaver, received more than one million votes and won four states.
Weaver’s success encouraged Democrats to incorporate most of the populist agenda into
their own platform.
The next election, in 1896, the People’s Party and the Democrats both nominated William
Jennings Bryan for president.
After its incorporation into the Democratic Party, the People’s Party
quickly disappeared.
This is a common fate of many third parties.
If the third party is gaining enough support from voters, one of the two main parties will
usually take notice and adopt the third party’s stance on that issue.
As a result, the need for the third party disappears, and its members are absorbed into
the main party.
Sometimes, a third party will develop around an individual, rather than an idea.
Such was the case in 1912 with the formation of the Progressive Party, better known as
the Bull Moose Party.
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt lost the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft.
Roosevelt and his followers broke away from the Republican Party and started the Progressive
Party.
The Bull Moose Party supported items such as social security, worker’s compensation,
and women’s suffrage.
Once again, all of these topics were eventually adopted by one of the two main political parties.
Throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, one of the topics that dominated American politics
was segregation.
That is, the issue of separating people on the basis of race, whether it be in restaurants,
on buses, or in schools.
This issue was so controversial that at least two different third parties formed because
of it.
In 1948, the Democrats nominated Harry Truman, who was opposed to segregation, as their presidential
candidate.
Southern Democrats were unhappy with this choice, so they walked out of the Democratic
National Convention.
They formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party, better known as the Dixiecrats, and
nominated Strom Thurmond as their candidate for president.
George Wallace, a popular former governor of Alabama, ran for president in 1968.
He also ran as a segregationist.
He created the American Independent Party, which is still active today.
Wallace even managed to win five states in the 1968 election, all in the South.
In 1992, Ross Perot ran as an Independent.
He largely represented disgruntled Republicans who felt that President George H.W.
Bush was not governing according to Republican principles.
Perot was very popular amongst voters, garnering well over 19 million votes in the 1992 election.
Following the election, his followers established what came to be known as the Reform Party.
The party experienced minor success in the 1990s, even getting a governor elected when
Jesse Ventura became Governor of Minnesota as a Reform Party candidate in 1999.
Today, the two largest third parties in the United States are the Libertarian Party and
the Green Party, but they are not the only ones.
There are many other parties in existence in the US.
Other third parties include the Constitution Party, Communist Party USA, the Modern Whig
Party, the Socialist Party USA, and the Prohibition Party.
In fact, while most Americans are only aware of two presidential candidates running for
office, this is not true.
With each presidential election, there may be in between forty to sixty candidates running
for the nation’s highest office.
While most of these candidates receive few, if any, votes, they are still working to making
their voices heard in the American political system.