For all of those of you who tie your hopes to the possibility of a minor party winning an election in the United States, I have something for you to read: This paper Entitled American Exceptionalism and the Minor Party will definitely open your eyes.

Over my time in the MA program, I have been forced to abandon the idealism of my youth and take a more pragmatic approach. I think this paper is the apex of that approach.

I would like to make one disclaimer here. The conclusions of the paper are that in the United States so many things are arrayed as to make the minor party an unworkable alternative, if one’s objective is to play by the rules and try to get elected. Does that mean we shouldn’t form minor parties? No, it sure don’t. We need to form political organizations specifically to demonstrate, concretely for people that there really is no “political frontier” where they can go to if they get fed up with the major parties. In other words, we need to concretely demonstrate for people that they will not achieve political reform the way things are through minor parties. Principle will always be trumped by rationality, except in the case of those who were not too rational to begin with (that is, those who actively support a minor party fervently, and think it will actually make a difference.)

No, it is not that we need to alter our means to accomplish the goal. It is that we need to alter our immediate goals: why we participate in minor parties. We need to use minor parties first to generally agitate for political reform. We need to use political parties to show what is screwed up with liberal democracy. And we need to use political parties to identify and associate with other radicals. The “revolution” won’t come from a radical democratic socialist Party. However, while it is still on the horizon, we can use the organization to hasten its approach: that is to help create the objective conditions whereby revolution CAN develop in this country of ours. This role for the minor Party is not laid out by the Paper, but you can read this as a prologue.

Enjoy.

Doc