Herewith, three separate pieces on efforts to break the stranglehold of the two major parties’ extremes…. (Links to the full columns are embedded in the headline of each).
An interview with Joe Lieberman, where he opposes Biden’s big bill (Oct. 27):
Perhaps the U.S. political scene has arrived at another “third-party moment.”
Or perhaps it needs a different sort of “centrist” course correction, as former Sen. Joe Lieberman suggests.
Either way, frustration with the old two-party system is high enough that serious people, not just cranks, are talking along such lines. From the reformist Left side of the political spectrum, Democratic former presidential and New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang says he is founding a third party (of sorts) . From the reformist Right, prominent columnist Jonah Goldberg is proposing a new third party for tactical reasons , to force the Republican Party eventually to return to Reagan conservatism from “Trumpified … asininity.”
Then there are those of us intrigued by a third-party (or multiparty) or independent option as a national or regional force, but only if its goal is eventually to win real elections rather than forcing one or both existing major parties to come to heel…. [Anyway], I interviewed Lieberman by phone. ….
Moderate Republican Susan Collins and moderate Democrat Joe Lieberman
Beyond Lieberman: Why not a third, but a fourth and fifth party, might help (Oct. 29): Former Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman said earlier this week that he welcomes a third-party movement in the United States. He also said he doubts such a party can be effective.
Let’s one-up Lieberman, though, although his new book is a valuable contribution to the discussion. A four- or five-party system might be just what the civic doctor ordered.
The discussion about breaking the stranglehold of uncompromising hard-liners in both major parties is attracting attention from multiple ideological vantage points….
‘Moderate’ House Dems should emulate Manchin and Sinema (Oct. 29): At least five Democratic members of Congress could bolster their own political standing and do the country a favor by becoming as prominent in Washington’s spending debates as Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema….
