Since the United States political system is almost unchangeable, the presence of third party candidates has been relatively insignificant and most likely will not change in the coming years. Third parties can be defined as the third largest political party before an election or can be any political party other than the two major parties, Republican and Democratic. It is extremely hard for a third party candidate to perform well on elections. For one, third parties have to get thousands of signatures on petitions just to be listed on the ballot while Democrats and Republicans are automatically listed. Since the majority of elected officials presently are part of the two major parties, they have incentives together to prevent a third party from gaining any kind of momentum and can use their power to keep it that way. Additionally, third parties cannot use federal funds to aid their campaign unless they received at least 5% of the votes during the previous election. The Democratic and Republican parties have vast amounts of resources themselves and they can easily out-campaign any other party.
The birth of third parties usually come from either dissatisfaction with the current parties and break off as a splinter party or as a group of people in a certain location. Some splinter parties include the current Tea Party started in 2009 or the Progressive Party led by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. A party formed because of geographical location, Chicago’s Harold Washington Party formed as an attempt to carry on the legacy of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first African American mayor. Some other notable third parties include the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the American Independent Party. Although third parties don’t have much success on election day, they still play a role in our political system.
Third parties usually have a unique set of beliefs and policies that are different from the traditional Democratic or Republican stances. They make people think a little more about previously untouchable principles. Since they don’t have much to lose, they can openly state issues or problems that are happening in the present circumstances. They can also point out facts that will keep both major parties honest. Sometimes the Republicans and Democrats will purposely ignore some topics because it might be too divisive and painstaking to sort out. A third party could bring up those issues and force both sides to have a stance on it. They could also spoil elections by drawing voters away from one party. Some argue that Ralph Nader’s candidacy may have cost Al Gore the presidency during the 2000 election by taking away some key voters in an extremely close race. Overall, though small, third parties can impact the government by forcing other parties to shift their policies or to address key issues that otherwise would have been largely ignored. They can have the power to determine a presidency by siphoning away some voters for a particular party. They are definitely not one to be forgotten in our political system.