Honors Political Science Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Honors Political Science - Research Paper Example The American political system has been mostly unkind to third parties. Third parties function more as sideshows or irritants than significant rivals in US elections. Third parties, such as the American Vegetarian Party, Libertarian Party, Nativist Know-Nothing Party and Agrarian Populist party, have been invaluable as safety valves with regard to alienated voters, as well as sources of new ideas. When these new ideas become popular among the electorate, principal parties typically adopt the ideas. In the last half of the 20th century, third parties were considered as transitory and primarily had insufficient and ineffective infrastructures (Aldrich 211). In 1948, Southerners rejected the Democratic Party’s turn towards civil rights; thus, the Southerners exited to establish the Dixiecrats or otherwise called State’s Rights Democratic Party. Dixiecrats’ candidate Storm Thurmond won many popular votes and 39 electoral votes from numerous Southern states. In the sam e year, Henry Wallace’s party, which had broken away from the leftist Democratic coalition, formed the Progressive Party and won a majority of the votes scattering the North and Midwestern votes. Two decades later, similar civil rights issues pushed a Southern breakaway political group to unite in the American Independent Party allowing George Wallace’s party to win nearly 10 million votes. In the modern era, third parties draw the most attention by being the heroic independent voice against the nominees of the main parties.