Spoiling for a Fight

by Micah L. Sifry

More Americans now identify as political independents than as either Democrats or Republicans. Tired of the two-party gridlock, the pandering, and the lack of vision, they've turned in increasing numbers to independent and third-party candidates. In 1998, for the first time in decades, a third-party candidate who was not a refugee from one of the two major parties, Jesse Ventura, won election to state-wide office, as the governor of Minnesota. In 2000, the public was riveted by the Reform Party's implosion over Patrick Buchanan's presidential candidacy and by Ralph Nader's Green Party run, which infuriated many Democrats but energized hundreds of thousands of disaffected voters in stadium-sized super-rallies.What are the prospects for new third-party efforts? Combining the close-in, personal reporting and learned analysis one can only get by covering this beat for years, Micah L. Sifry's. Spoiling for a Fight exposes both the unfair obstacles and the viable opportunities facing today's leading independent parties. Third-party candidates continue be denied a fighting chance by discriminatory ballot access, unequal campaign financing, winner-take-all races, and derisive media coverage. Yet, after years of grassroots organizing, third parties are making major inroads. At the local level, efforts like Chicago's New Party and New York's Working Families Party have upset urban political machines while gaining positions on county councils and school boards. Third-party activists are true believers in democracy, and if America's closed two-party system is ever to be reformed, it will be thanks to their efforts

Genres: Politics

386 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2002

About the author

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Reviews

[Public Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even as a person with an intense interest in American third party politics, I found this to be a bit of a slog. It's not the author's fault. The nature of winner-take-all elections tends to turn third party insurgencies into an endless winding tale of defeat.

What was interesting was how personalities, poor decision making, and unclear objectives could sabotage a third party campaign just as surely as the system that's designed to keep them locked out. There is value in learning about the mistakes of Perot's Reform Party and the Greens and others. Sifry's journalistic accomplishment should not be diminished here - he did an amazing amount of work to bring us this level of detail. The author also does an admirable job finding the silver linings in a very bleak cloudscape.

However, unless you're like me, which is to say somehow still optimistic and intrigued by third party politics despite everything pointing the other way, this book probably isn't for you.

[Reza Amiri Praramadhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a country which claims to be the most advanced, and vibrant democracy, US of A is provingly reluctant in letting third party politics thrive. For so long that Democratic and Republican parties dominated the political scene, doing their best to prevent another spoilsport in their game of two. In this book, we followed several cases, the most prominent would be Jesse Ventura’s campaingning for governorship in Minnesota with Minnesota Independence Party, and Ralph Nader’s presidential campaigns with the Green Party. The other cases, well, they just blurred out of my mind. Although the book seems to be out of date by the time this review was made, it provided an interesting insight into the predicaments faced by third-party in making their way into national politics in America.

[Jennifer]

I'm reading this too late. Hard to get into it so long after publication.

[Keri Kresler · Rating 3 out of 5]

My copy inscribed to me by the author.