Elon Musk Folly

Why Third Parties Fail

As of now, Musk is taking a poll on whether or not to fund a new political party to take on the Federal Government. He is making faulty assumptions about politics. He saw the inside of the “sausage factory”, and did not like what he saw, but, as of now his expectations are too high.

First, party politics is the end result of the emergence of organizations willing to work with each other, not the beginning. From church organizations to labor unions to the military, local organizations tend to avoid politics as local action matters first.

Second, political parties are not as uniform as people want to believe. There are regional differences of which the larger parties understands. What happens is the third parties become co-opted by the most modest of regional differences. This may be the best a third party can hope for, but it can break in multiple directions. This is why both political parties have odd elected officials yet third party candidates cannot get a foothold.

Third, there have been numerous third parties before. The most active is the Libertarian Party, but there was also the Reform Party. They often ended up helping the very people they opposed. Scott Presler of Early Vote Action has provided several posts on X on this.

Fourth, merely electing a candidate does not mean they will not change their mind. This requires proper candidate recruitment. This is why political action committees come into play but the majority of perform poorly. There are exceptions such as Club for Growth.

There are other matters as well. House Speaker Mike Johnson made much effort to get conservative votes on the bill, and he accomplished it. I have doubts previous Speakers could have done so well. There are those who will take issue with Senator Rand Paul and Congressman Thomas Massie, but they are making a mistake in opposing such men. Both men know the flaws of the bill, and by standing out in opposition, they forced the supporters to find ways to amend the bill to justify supporting the bill..

The fact Nebraska Congressman Adrian Smith could have his bill on school choice pass was the result (https://rightcheer.com/a-big-beautiful-win-for-school-choice/) of hard pushes of conservative Congress members to support the bill. When you have Congressman Don Bacon and Congressman Jim Jordan supporting the same bill without any animosity to each other, it is a good day.