Third Party Names


SilentOne
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If you were to start a new political party, what would you name it? Why? Where might you suggest somebody look for party naming inspiration?

Before you ask, no, I am not planning on starting my own party. That would probably require me to actually talk about politics instead of just listening, and I doubt I'll ever feel like I know enough to be comfortable doing that in public. 😉

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Well, there are actually a LOT of third parties in the US already, the largest being (I think) the Libertarian party.  None of them really can make a huge impact on the national political scale, but some of them have success on a more local or smaller scale.

If we had a massive third party, the Progressive Party has popped up occasionally (for example, under Teddy Roosevelt) with both Republican and more liberal motivators at various times when it has appeared as a named party.

Ultimately I think for something larger than a simple two party political process to be successful in expanding beyond two parties you need a minimum of 4 parties. 

The problem with only one third party is that it grants too much power to one party in a bi-party system, while taking the power it possesses from another party, thus ensuring a one party system overall.  Thus, it normally fails and we are left with a two party system.

In a four party system, if you had one that was liberal and one that was conservative that gained a huge following on both sides that were about equal, I could see it working.

It would make a Presidential election (and others that one would want to see a majority of votes in) rather interesting and you may see more default votes falling on back up processes to determine a winner rather than the normal electoral or other voting methods we use in the US as the primary means of selection.

In those cases, perhaps one would be the Farmer's Party which leans more towards rural conservative rights and the other being the People's party (populist party) which was a rather major force in liberal politics in the late 19th century.

Edited by JohnsonJones
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"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
-George Washington, Farewell Address, 17 September 1796

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