Suggested Steps to Ensure Third Party Victory

Spinning your wheels won't get you anywhere and insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Despite this, third parties in the United States continue to approach elections in the same way they have since we became effectively a one-party nation.

Third parties want to win elections, and a majority of the American people are tired of the same partisanship year after year. Yet these same voters continue to elect their same politicians and refuse to consider any alternatives. Why? Because third parties have allowed themselves to be painted as a wasted vote and as fringe or kook candidates. If third parties want to win elections, they have to fundamentally rethink their election strategy and seriously think outside the box into which the main party and the media has placed them.

What follows are a few of my suggestions that I believe will begin to break down the uni-partisan system we find in our nation now and open up our political discourse to more than a single viewpoint.

1. All third parties must put aside their differences and work together to win elections

While it's true that a Libertarian candidate will have little, if anything, in common with a Green candidate, the fact is both want to win elections and both see the single party system as an immense barrier to political equality. That said, if the parties were willing to put aside their differences and construct a unified platform, pool their resources, focus group messages and issues sure to sway voters, and present themselves as a sensible, practical (not ideological) alternative to the major party, they will win elections in some parts of the country.

If all third parties followed this advice and started to win elections, they could work from inside the system to break down the hurdles that blocked their electoral hopes previously and once again open up our democracy to more than just a single political ideology. After that point, they could break the alliance and compete for votes based on their ideologies.

2. Quit nominating average Joes and assorted media undesirables

The key to getting to the voters is to win the media. After all it is the media and not the parties who choose our candidates during the primaries. That said, the unified third parties need to find a "Kennedyesque" candidate who is media savvy, photogenic, charismatic, and has a reserved passion and demeanor.

As evidence by the Republican selection of Vice President, while the voters seemed to like Palin's demeanor and style, the media did not. As a result, she was persecuted (whether wrongly or rightly is immaterial) by the media. Third parties can't afford to make the same mistake by selecting candidates that are either sticks in the mud (ie McCain) or too "down-home" (ie Sarah Palin). Again, "Kennedyesque" is the ideal for which we must aim.

At this point in our history, I am not sure that the media would accept a female and/or minority third party candidate, unless they were well known and well liked (think Oprah). Otherwise, the media would just view their sex and/or race as fringe as well. While one might think that Obama's historic electoral victory and Sarah Palin's nomination would mean this is no longer a factor, unfortunately, the media will find any possible reason to vilify, demonize, and otherwise make a third party candidate look foolish or unprepared.

Remember, the first step to winning the election is not to win the voters, but to win the media. If you can get the media on your side, then you can actually get your message out to the voters.

3. Gather massive amounts of political contributions

This one is usually tough for a single third party, but it is my hope that a unified third party will have an easier time of this. A unified third party will need massive amounts of money to fund ads pointing out that voting for the same party is pointless (with clear examples of their failure to solve the problems of Average Americans).

Above all, appeal to the self-interest of the voters. Voters don't care about fairness or justice, the vast majority don't really care about the Constitution or the environment, they just want to know how your policies are going to benefit them compared to the policies of the main party. Again, don't be ideological about it, that just opens you up to being called fringe and a kook. Your ultimate goal is not to get the voters to vote for you, but rather to vote against them.

Leave ideology out of it and argue like a scientist, from facts, but without being bookish about it. Use carefully crafted sound bytes that have been focused grouped to ring with the voters over and over again.

Aside from political ads, you will need a big bank account to pay for various paraphenalia (such as yard signs, bumper stickers, etc) and voter registration efforts. You're also going to need to get down to the local level and host town hall meetings, especially in those districts that are toss ups between the main party's candidates.

And then off to victory!

These three planks should be enough to get the ball rolling. The strategy will take several election cycles, persistence, patience, and a lot of hard work. But in the end, we'll have defeated the single-party system and won our democratic republic back from the oligarchical elite who have stolen it from "We the People".