The power of a third force in American Politics

John Frohnmayer, Candidate, U.S. Senate 2008 January 7, 2008

According to that famous American philosopher, Yogi Berra, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it!” In American politics that means you can vote for a Democrat or a Republican, and that’s it - there are no other choices.

            Another great American philosopher, Abraham Lincoln, warned us that the “dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.  . . .  We must think anew and act anew . . . and then we will save our country.” We need a third force in American politics and, looking at the prominent role Independents are playing in the Iowa and new Hampshire Presidential primaries, people are beginning to recognize the tremendous and up to now untapped power of the Independent voter.

            According to a USA Today/Gallup poll in July 2007, 58% of us believe a third Party is necessary. Add that to the 80% of us who distrust Congress, the 78% who think the economy is going to get worse, and it’s fair to ask why only two Parties, why the same two Parties, why the same unsolved problems of health care, immigration, education, Iraq, global warming, social security, and crushing debt.

            The two current models in American politics are gridlock and cram-down. Gridlock is what we currently have in the United States Senate where the nearly even split prevents all but the most inconsequential legislation (for instance, re-naming buildings for retired politicians). Some of my Democratic friends say: “This will all be solved if only we can get 60 votes in the Senate.” Then, the Democrats can cram it down the Republicans’ throats. The problem with that “solution” is that it will be undone the moment the balance of power in the Senate shifts. We need look no further than forest policy, carbon emissions, and education where we have ping-ponged from one side to the other at the expense of consistent and cohesive policy.

            The architecture of our government is purposely inefficient:  three branches of government, two legislative bodies (the Senate and the House), civilian control of the military. The theory is that bad ideas will fall of their own weight, and that consensus is required for action and stability. Unfortunately, that architecture has led to gridlock, but it’s not the Founders’ fault. After all, both John Adams and George Washington warned against the baleful effects of Party and the threat that partisanship would hijack good government.

            Here’s how the United States Senate can change from the politics of partisanship to the politics of remedy. If I am elected from Oregon as an Independent in 2008, I can guarantee that there will be at least a dozen people shedding Party baggage and running as Independents from other states in 2010. (It’s doable - I am already ahead of the leading Democrat in the Riley Research poll of December 2007). If there were as few as half a dozen Independents elected to the Senate, we would hold the balance of power. Both sides would need us to pass legislation. We could help set the agenda, be the honest broker between the Parties, search for the compelling ideas and advocate their passage, and ultimately put together the kinds of compromises that would stick - legislation that would not be undone by the next turn of political fortune.

            The Senate was conceived as a great debating body, but it doesn’t debate anymore because the partisans already have their marching orders from their caucus leaders. The term statesman has disappeared from our vocabulary. The term common interest has been degraded and defiled in favor of special interests, namely the interests that are paying for the 30-second television ads that scare us, tell us nothing about the candidate, and ignore the needs of the country. It’s time that we did better. It’s time, in Lincoln’s words, to think anew and act anew, and that means shedding the stranglehold of political Parties and voting for real change.

            As a voting public we are disengaged but not disinterested. A third force in American politics gives us hope that we can break this spell of short-term thinking and seek long term solutions - solutions that can survive if they have broad consensus. A third force in American politics can be the mid-wife for such consensus and give freedom a new birth.