A Look at Third Party Politics

Some believe that the Green Party helped elect Bush to his first term while others believe that it was Gore's election to lose. The other prominent third party is the Libertarians. They truly believe in the least amount of government.

The Greens are progressive. Ecology is only one part of their platform. They also believe in racial diversity, a living wage, and laws and policies expressed in a humanitarian manner, locally, nationally, and globally.

Libertarians believe that citizens should have complete control over their actions as long as their actions do not interfere with the actions of others. In other words, you have your rights as long as they don't interfere with other people's rights.

Greens are what the Democrats think they are and Libertarians are what the Republicans aspire to be.

However, these are not the only third parties. Third Parties have been around since the founding of the United States.

The Constitution makes no mention of political parties. This was a smart move; it would be anti-Constitutional to show any preference to any political party.

The first two political parties were the Federalists and the Democrat-Republicans. The Federalists believed in a strong central government and the Democrat-Republicans believed in strong states' rights.

Issues, disagreements, and beliefs are the reasons for the major political parties and the third parties. Some past third parties include: Anti-Masonic Party, Free Soil Party, Union Party (merged with another third party - the Republicans), Whigs, the Know-Nothing Party (also known as the American Party), Dixiecrats (also known as the States' Rights Democrats), the Progressive Party, and the Bull Moose Party.

What did these third parties believe in? What were their causes and goals?

The first third party was the Anti-Masonic party (1831). They were also the first third party to hold a national convention.

They didn't like the secrecy of the Masons. They believed this group to be un-American.