Spoiling for a Fight
Third-Party Politics in America
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- 52,99 €
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- 52,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
More Americans now identify as political independents than as either Democrats or Republicans. Tired of the two-party gridlock, the pandering, and the lack of vision, they've turned in increasing numbers to independent and third-party candidates. In 1998, for the first time in decades, a third-party candidate who was not a refugee from one of the two major parties, Jesse Ventura, won election to state-wide office, as the governor of Minnesota. In 2000, the public was riveted by the Reform Party's implosion over Patrick Buchanan's presidential candidacy and by Ralph Nader's Green Party run, which infuriated many Democrats but energized hundreds of thousands of disaffected voters in stadium-sized super-rallies.What are the prospects for new third-party efforts? Combining the close-in, personal reporting and learned analysis one can only get by covering this beat for years, Micah L. Sifry's. Spoiling for a Fight exposes both the unfair obstacles and the viable opportunities facing today's leading independent parties. Third-party candidates continue be denied a fighting chance by discriminatory ballot access, unequal campaign financing, winner-take-all races, and derisive media coverage. Yet, after years of grassroots organizing, third parties are making major inroads. At the local level, efforts like Chicago's New Party and New York's Working Families Party have upset urban political machines while gaining positions on county councils and school boards. Third-party activists are true believers in democracy, and if America's closed two-party system is ever to be reformed, it will be thanks to their efforts
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Focusing, to a large degree, on Ralph Nader's highly publicized but unsuccessful bit for the presidency, Sifry, a former editor at the Nation, charts the history and potential of third-party politics in the United States. Arguing with intelligence, a massive array of facts and a sly wit, Sifry claims that our two-party system is a "duopoly" that decisively dictates national politics through control of federal money and does not reflect the views or needs of many Americans. Casting a wide political and sociological net, he explicates the rise of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore politics;" explains how third-party candidates can circumvent the lack of federal funding (Ross Perot and his Reform Party had other sources of funding), and a party's lack of profile (Jesse Ventura's American Reform Party relied on the former wrestler's name recognition and an appeal to a working-class constituency). Sifry also documents how alternative groups such as the Green Party or the Working Families Party can work through their constituents' differences to find common goals. In this debut book, Sifry presents a vivid tapestry of the problems faced by, as well as the enormous potential promise of, alternative political parties. Always optimistic, Sifry is never na ve (he details with precision how the Gore campaign countered Nader's popularity by addressing issues raised by the latter without ever integrating them into the Democratic platform) and presents a balanced, important and enlightened new way to think through the political process.
