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If somebody is to make a 3rd or 4th party, how much and how long will it take for them to be able to compete with the other 2?
It entirely depends on what you mean. We've had a functioning libertarian party for a while, they've gotten far enough to get on the ballots in a couple presidential races and libertarian candidates have won local elections. We've had fairly strong socialist parties before the red scare era.
Now the libertarians kind of sucks shit, so maybe they're a bad barometer to go off of? Maybe a super populist party would take off in a decade or two, maybe it would just flounder with the same success of the libertarian party. Part of the problem is that political opinions in the US are largely formed around binaries associated with either party, so while a new party might form, it would probably get chucked into a "left" or "right" bucket and flounder in obscurity like the green party.
We have to work together to reform voting. FPTP is bullshit and the two big parties have it locked down. Libertarians and Greens have to sue states every election to get them to follow the rules.
The Bull Moose party was closest we've had to an actual 3rd party. That was only because Teddy Roosevelt was running it and he was a previous president.
I assume it is possible with the modern day ability to communicate and organize. Getting a 3rd name on every state ballot will take some ground work. It might be easier, but we would need someone to get behind. Like a REAL leader and not a "pop culture icon." I vote to get that Shawn Fain guy. He is kicking ass in the auto union, so I think he would fight for the working class all around.
That was only because Teddy Roosevelt was running it and he was a previous president.
Not just a previous president, but TEDDY fuckin ROOSEVELT.
He had all the same (imagined) qualities that make people who like Trump like that idiot, but he used them for good.
A man's man who said it like it was and took no bullshit. Knew shit was fucked and that it needed cleaning out and said so to get elected.
Even had a bit of a cult of personality going, Teddy Bears yakno?
Not perfect or anything, but looking at Teddy I can understand to a degree why people can get swept away by big personalities.
Oh I 100% agree about the man. Teddy was a big push of progressive policies and he was a great president. We almost never had him as president because the robber barons (JP Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockafeller) used their money to put him as a VP to McKinley. McKinely was bought and paid for by them and the VP position was a place to put people to end their political career. Then the assassination happened and Teddy came in with all these trust busting ideas.
Also, Teddy first came into the political stage as a rich, fancy dressed guy. He did a PR campaign to change his image to this man's man. Then after those photos of him in furs and an expensive hunting knife, he joined the military and did the whole rough riders thing. He became the image he portrayed and came back to NY better from it. He became a popular Governor and that's when the robber barons got worried and wanted to stop his momentum.
T.R. was tough before he joined the war, when he came back a hero he proved it to everyone else. He's absolutely my favorite president and a fascinating man
There's a Pulitzer-winning biography of his I'd recommend
The problem is the focus on Presidential politics.
Third parties should start local or state level. Focus on a specific platform. Keep allied to or working between the other two parties nationally.
Win local and state house elections. Then move up from there.
I would say we recently saw this happen, it's just that the tea party overtook the republicans from within in about a decade.