I have outlined five major parties and two fringe parties. Here is a brief summary of what I think they might look like:
Major Parties:
The National Freedom Party – The NFP supports no government intervention in society, business, or foreign sovereign states. The NFP wants to shrink the national government as much as possible and supports a strict interpretation of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Most important to the NFP is a free market with as few restrictions as possible. The NFP represents many small businesspeople, skilled artisans, and libertarians.
Percent of Voters: 25.0%
Hypothetical Spokesman: Rand Paul
Potential Affiliates: CATO, NRA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Institute for Justice, the Federalist Society, Club for Growth, Campaign for Liberty, and the TEA Parties, Dick Young.
The Christian Conservative Party – The CCP is the biggest single bloc in American politics. This party supports government intervention to enforce high moral standards, and a free-market business model. There is internal party conflict on whether or not the U.S. should use its military to enforce regime change in countries with inhumane dictators.
Percent of Voters: 25.5%
Hypothetical Spokesman: Sarah Palin
Potential Affiliates: Alliance Defense Fund, Evangelical Christians, Catholics (including a large Hispanic contingent), Baptists (including a large African American contingent), and NRLC.
The Neo-Conservative Party – The NCP advocates broad use of government resources to support other aspects of its platform, which include fostering democracy abroad and enhancing economic and security infrastructure at home. The demographic represented by the NCP is those Americans who believe in worldwide “manifest destiny,” and the corporatists who would benefit from an increased American presence abroad and the military buildup it would take to secure that presence.
Percent of Voters: 7.0%
Hypothetical Spokesman: Bill Kristol
Potential Affiliates: American Enterprise Institute, Project for a New American Century, AIPAC.
The Green Labor Party – The Green Labor Party advocates for extreme regulation on corporations, both for workers’ rights and for ecological sustainability. The GLP will constantly put government at odds with business in an effort to secure a utilitarian society. The GLP represents environmentalists and unions for unskilled labor.
Percent of Voters: 13.0%
Hypothetical Spokesman: Al Gore
Potential Affiliates: Sierra Club, PETA, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the green Energy lobby, SEIU, AFL-CIO, UAW, Teamsters.
The Progressive Socialists Party – The PSP is the bulk of the mainstream left. Its platform is based on income redistribution through a progressive tax system and a rights agenda that abolishes most of the Judeo-Christian foundational structure of current society, replacing it with a purely science-based ethos. This group is made up of groups of poor people looking for government assistance and the pseudo-loft liberals who would gladly give them everything they want.
Percent of Voters: 24.5%
Hypothetical Spokesman: John Podesta
Potential Affiliates: ACLU, Moveon.org, and The Center for American Progress and ACORN, NOW, NARAL, the Radical Progressive Movement.
Fringe Parties:
The National American Party – The NAP opposes any immigration and supports high tariffs. The NAP also argues that all international ties should be cut and that even legal immigrants should be deported.
Percent of Voters: 2.5%
The Socialist Peoples Party – The SPP is a socialist party that would transform the United States into a strict Marxist state with the federal government controlling as much of life, and the economy, as possible.
Percent of Voters: 2.5%
This vision of a multi-party system will likely never come to be. In a “winner-take-all” political system, where only one person in the campaign walks away with the election, there is no incentive to run as a third-party candidate. You can’t take 30% of a governorship or 42% of a House seat. Even so, multiparty systems are working across the world, it just takes those with enough guts break from their party and stand on principles. Like Doug Hoffman, it’s better to stick with your principles, even if you do lose.
