If the teabaggers siphon off 20-25% of the GOP vote come November and

[Atticus]

liberal disaffection spurs a similar proportion of defections to third party candidates, could both parties HAVE to accomodate their dissidents in order to govern?

Would the resulting increase in polarization virtually paralyze our government?

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Loosing 20%-25% doesn't equal electing anyone in those third parties...

In order to have a real affect, these parties would have to elect people to office and do so in large enough numbers to actually be a force and not just an anomaly.

These movements have happened before, the Grange party, Antimonopoly Party and other agrarian parties between 1870 and 1890 stirred up trouble, elected more than a few congressmen, but all their gains were eventually wiped out and they were reabsorbed back into the Republican and Democratic Parties.

With our winner take all system, unless the disaffected voters actually elect people congress will continue to be dominated by Democrats or Republicans.

I'd like to see a real third party movement, and I would consider voting green if we had a congressman running with a chance of beating the Democrat and the Republican, but I don't expect to see that.

[old mark]

2. The most successful 3rd party presidential candidate was Ross Perot in '96..

he got around 8% of the vote, IIRC. He later left his own party, which nominated Pat Buchanan in 2000.

The tea baggers don't have 20% of the vote, would not mean much if they did-they are too contentions and cannot agree on a single candidate. They may drive the GOP further to the right.
It seems as though the Democratic left is probably around 10% or less of all Democratic voters, and that many if not most would resign themselves to traditional Democratic candidates after all is said and done, so we really would have little effect unless the race is very close. We might present more of a problem to the Democratic Party in November's election than in 2012.

This is all just my opinion, however and I have no doubt someone will say I am wrong very shortly...

Rec.

mark

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Eh? Haven't you noticed? Teabaggers are hard right Republicans.

They are not running third party candidates, they are pulling the Republican Party even further right than it was. That might help Democratic candidates at the polls as it *might* alienate that blob of idiots known as 'independent voters', but I wouldn't count on it. What it most certainly will do is drag our allegedly left of center Democratic Party rightward past its currently unacceptable center-right awfulness.