Sarah Palin’s flirtation with third party politics has inspired Jeffery Lord to write this article at American Spectatoron the history of third parties in general. Describing the “third party paradox” Lord says:
It is always an abysmal failure.
While being a spectacular success.
It has never elected a President of the United States.
It has elected some of history’s most important Presidents of the United States.
How can this be?
Well, hey, at least he got the partisan angle correct. Lincoln, the registered Republican, was not re-elected / elected as GOP.
General George McClellan was the ‘Elephantine’ standard bearer. The GOP hated him, but less than the disappointing Rail Splitter from the Far West.
I’m just sayin …………
Jeffrey Lord often has an, uh, idiosyncratic view of history.
http://www.theagitator.com/2010/07/26/the-american-spectators-mistaken-history/
1964? Perhaps 1864?
Let’s look to the Union Party Convention of 1964. Lord is wrong.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
Big Box Hack Piece ——– great phrasing!
Big Box Hack piece. Don’t try anything new. The present system is just fine, immutable in fact. Why would we even think of changing it?
He deals with the GOP as third party issue but in a way that is rather sloppy IMO.
Everyone seems to forget that these days….
The article makes some good points and is worth a read, but it contains a very glaring historical inaccuracy which I am sure our readership will pick up on. I commented on the inaccuracy in the comments and sent Mr. Lord an e-mail, but as of yet it has not been corrected.
He sort of clears up the problem as you read further, so it was probably just a mis-statement, but hopefully someone will correct it because it detracts from an otherwise decent article.
uhh….what about the Republican Party in the days of Lincoln? That was essentially a ‘third party’.