BRACK: Time for a third party to rise?

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  America seems so politically messed-up these days that maybe it’s time to try something really different.  Is it time finally for third political parties to flourish?

The guy who was supposed to “drain the swamp” made it more infested than ever as corruption investigations and indictments across agencies seem to sprout daily.   Meanwhile, members of Congress are more like eternally-out-of-touch hamsters on spinning wheels than distinguished legislators trying to fix real problems of everyday Americans.

The divide in America is real, voiced over and over on a month-long fall trip across the country just before the 2018 election.  Americans also want unity, but with dividers and hamsters in control, there’s little feeling that change to a more civilized politics that performs will come along.

Polls reflect all of this dysfunction.  A February NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of 900 Americans showed 38 percent of respondents believed “the two-party system is seriously broken, and the country needs a third party.”  Another 47 percent said the two-party system had real problems, but it could work.  Only 11 percent thought the two-party system worked fairly well.

An October 2018 Gallup Poll was a starker snapshot, showing 57 percent of Americans believed there was a need for a third major political party, while 38 percent thought the current two-party system was adequate.

“Independents are, now surprisingly, the political partisan group most supportive of a third party,” according to a Gallup analysis.  “Seventy-two percent of political independents support a third major party. … Both Democrats and Republicans typically have similar levels of support for a third major political party.  However, this year, there is a substantial 16-percentage point gap … with 54 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans supporting a third major political party.”

Former Democratic S.C. Superintendent of Schools Jim Rex was a founder of the American Party of South Carolina a few years back.  Earlier this month, it and other third parties merged into what they hope becomes a centrist national third party called the Alliance Party.

Rex, currently a national vice-chair of the Alliance Party, believes now is the time for a real third party.

“The majority of Americans are explicit in their belief that neither of the two dominant parties represent their views and/or are effectively addressing their needs,” Rex said this week.  “Poll after poll has shown that the numbers of self-identified Republicans and Democrats are steadily decreasing, while the numbers of independents and non-affiliated [voters] are dramatically increasing-to the point that they now outnumber either of the two parties.

“This ‘new majority’ is mostly in the broad center and are not ideologues. They are tired of career politicians, gridlock and divisive politics. They are looking for common-sense problem-solvers who will move our nation forward-while unifying us.”

Rex said he believed the Alliance Party would run candidates in all 50 states in 2020.  And for naysayers who say change would be difficult, he pointed to the United States Senate, which currently includes two independents.

“The U.S. Senate is the easiest example of where only a handful of elections could make this happen,” Rex said.  “Many state legislatures are also closely divided and could be quickly susceptible to this fulcrum outcome.”

What’s in place now isn’t working.  Does the country really have anything to lose by gaining a new major party focused on unifying the country?

“Unity, community, responsibility says it all,” Rex said.  “Championship teams always have all three. We need a new approach to our politics in America to make ‘Team America’ effective for us and our children.”

NEW SUBJECT:  Close the “Charleston” gun loophole now.

News of 49 people being killed in two senseless mosque attacks in New Zealand sends shivers up spines of Americans living in Newtown, Thousand Oaks, Pittsburgh, Parkland, Florence and Charleston – all places where innocent people died due to out-of-control gun violence.

South Carolina and federal law makers need to get off their butts and close the “Charleston loophole” so that people who shouldn’t have guns can’t get them.  If the New Zealand massacre is anything, it needs to be a reminder for sensible gun reform now.

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