Third Parties II

 

It Takes Two

It takes two, baby
It takes two, baby,
To make a dream come true
It just takes two 

It may take two, but what if there are more than two? 

A decision has to be made on: who serves in a government; who is served by a government; and who, and at what amount, is taxed by a government.  This presumes that there is a government, but those who advocate for no government need to explain whom will provide the benefits supported by a government. (We The People ….and all that jazz😉). 

Those who serve in, control, government need not include all members of society.  The US Constitution excludes persons from serving in certain offices based on their place of birth or age. ( e.g. a President must be a natural born citizen over 35 years old.)  Those served by the government need not be limited to those who can serve in the government  (e.g. spotted owls may be served by government, but no one expects them to serve in government).  Those who are taxed by the government need not be authorized by that government. ( e.g. The IRS estimates that about 6 million unauthorized immigrants file individual income tax returns each year. Research reviewed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office indicates that between 50 percent and 75 percent of unauthorized immigrants pay federal, state, and local taxes.)

A political party must make decisions about whether it supports inclusive or exclusive government.  (e.g. who serves in, is served by, and/or is taxed by, government.) A political party must make a decision as to whether it supports a limited or a strong government.  ( the support for NO government by a political party, who are vying to run a government, is a non sequitur.)  While these decisions are continuous not binary, let’s assume that they are only binary.  Then there are potentially four groups of people.  The problem is that the US government by supporting single-ballot plurality-rule elections that are structured within single-member districts tends to favor a two-party system. That is Duverger’s Law.  Since there are potentially at least four groups, and only two parties, two groups may not find a party to represent them.

This dynamic might explain the tension that exist in society today.  Four groups are vying for the control of only two parties. Either groups agree to exist within a party, or they exclude themselves from any party.