Why A Conservative Third Party Is A Terrible Idea

08 Nov, 2012 by John Hawkins

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Respectfully, I have to disagree with: Herman Cain’s call for a Third Party in the strongest of terms. It might be emotionally satisfying, but it would be doomed before it got started.

Appearing on Bryan Fischer’s radio program this afternoon, Cain called for a large faction of Republican Party leaders to desert the party and form a third, more conservative party.

“I never thought that I would say this, and this is the first time publicly that I’ve said it: We need a third party to save this country. Not Ron Paul and the Ron Paulites. No. We need a legitimate third party to challenge the current system that we have, because I don’t believe that the Republican Party … has the ability to rebrand itself,” Cain said.

…It is more viable today than it has ever been,” Cain told Fischer today of a third party.

Saying a third party is “more viable today than it has ever been” is like saying that putting a trampoline on one side of the Grand Canyon makes it more viable than ever before to jump it from end to end. In other words, it’s true, but completely irrelevant.

Keep in mind that the last successful Third Party in American history was the Republican Party, which was able to almost completely replace the Whigs within three election cycles because that party, like the Democrats, was pro-slavery. Had the Republican Party not managed to so thoroughly and completely replace the Whigs, it would have actually been a disaster for opponents of slavery because both parties would have split the anti-slavery vote.

What makes anyone think that the Republican Party, which raised over a billion dollars, controls the House and came close to winning the presidency is ready to fold if it’s challenged by another credible conservative party? What makes anyone think Republicans in Congress would change over to the new party en masse? If there’s any evidence whatsoever that would happen, it’s hard to spot. Where would the new party raise the billions in money needed for existing infrastructure and marketing, on top of the money it would need to campaign? Additionally, how could a new party brand itself in a way that it draws more votes than the Republican Party without becoming the Republican Party? Even if the party took off, what makes anyone think it wouldn’t prove to be just as corruptible and controllable by the establishment as the GOP?

Meanwhile, as all these questions are being answered, keep in mind that the clock will be ticking. We don’t have any Israeli style system where the GOP and the new third party could form a government together. A race where the GOP receives 30% of the vote, the third party receives 30% and the Democrat candidate receives 40% of the vote would be a win for the Left. With numbers like that, Democrats could put Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky and Bill Maher in office if they wanted to do it.

What it all comes down to is that a serious attempt to form a rightward leaning Third Party would be the best thing that ever happened – for liberals.