(cross-posted at robertnspicer.com)
In his book The Age of Reform historian Richard Hofstadter argues, “Third parties are like bees: once they have stung, they die.” In contemporary politics Ross Perot is the textbook example of Hofstadter’s characterization. Bob Woodward noted in his 1994 book The Agenda that Perot “elevated deficit reduction to topic A” and thus pushed the issue onto the Clinton White House agenda.
The real sting of Perot, however, was probably the one felt by Pres. George H.W. Bush who lost a lot of votes, and possibly reelection, in part because of the man. This could be why such third party candidates received little to no attention from the news media in 2012.
According to David Gillespie, author of Challengers to Duopoly, the lack of coverage for third party candidates, such as Greens and Libertarians, is nothing new. He cites an article that found that in the last three months of the 2008 election the New York Times and Washington Post published a combined 6,781 articles about John McCain and Barack Obama and a combined 66 about the four most significant third party candidates, a difference of more than 100-to-1.
The coverage is problematic not only in quantity, but also in quality.
“Even when third parties get coverage it tends to be not very complimentary coverage,” Gillespie says.
Third party candidates tend to be portrayed as “spoilers” that cost the election for one candidate. This is how Perot and Ralph Nader have both been portrayed. Gillespie says even historical accounts, such as Teddy Roosevelt swinging the 1912 election from Taft to Wilson, present third parties this way.
Spoilers, or not, third party political movements have the potential to offer some solutions to what a broad consensus sees as problems with the political system.
For one, there has been a lot of hand wringing about last year’s election being about Internet memes, attacks, lies, and trivialities. While it is too late to save 2012, 2014 and 2016 could be better, if third party candidates get some airtime they could inject new ideas into the debate.
Giving third parties a bigger footprint on the next election could also help to loosen up partisan gridlock. Gillespie says Perot had that effect during the Clinton presidency.
“The fact that Newt Gingrich was willing to work with Bill Clinton on budgetary matters was not through the goodness of either major party’s hearts. It was their responding to what they perceived as a possible challenging movement,” Gillespie says.
Pres. Obama and Speaker Boehner could probably use similar “help” with the fiscal cliff.
Whether it is about new ideas or moving beyond partisanship journalists should feel a sense of responsibility to give these candidates more media oxygen. Third parties present a challenge to the Democrats and Republicans but they also stir up new ideas and force the parties to deal with big problems.
“If you’re building your prerogatives on the public’s right to know, you have a responsibility to let them know about more than just the D and the R,” Gillespie says.
Given the behavior of the Ds and Rs over the last few weeks the public might be interested in knowing a little more about third party candidates and ideas.
