Quote:
Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
My gut is that you will see that part emerge only when one of the other parties takes a dive. The model for a party going away and being replaced is the Whigs getting replaced by the Republicans, and in our system, I think its very unlikely to happen any other way.
Maybe 30-40 years ago, Massachusetts used to have multi-person state legislative districts - two or three reps elected from each district. In that system, a third party could have emerged more easily on a statewide level, but it never did.
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The only reason to see a rise of a third party is if there's a significant bloc of voters not served by the two existing parties. In fact, there is a party that serves the voters sebby is thinking of. It's called the Democratic Party. As baltassoc noted, the party has moved quite a bit in the last several years. E.g., over GOP opposition, Clinton balanced the budget. If you're looking for a party that's fiscally responsible and not socially conservative, that's your party, and John Kerry is your man. The people who argue otherwise are looking at the Maxine Waters of the world and caricatures of their own devise.
