Spoiling for a Fight
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A01=Micah L. Sifry
American Labor Party
Author_Micah L. Sifry
ballot access barriers
Ballot Line
campaign finance reform
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Category=NHK
Cedar Key
CIO
day
election
electoral systems
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families
Fec
grassroots democracy
independent party electoral strategies
jesse
Lenora Fulani
Lowell Weicker
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Midd Le
nader
Nader Campaign
NAFTA
National Committee
Party
party system analysis
Perot Movement
Perot Voters
political mobilization
Political Party
ralph
reform
Reform Nominee
Reform Party
Single Member Districts
Tv Ad
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UAW
ventura
Welfare Reform
working
Working Families Party
Young Men
Product details
- ISBN 9780415931434
- Weight: 710g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 11 Apr 2003
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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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
Micah L. Sifry, formerly an editor at The Nation, is Senior Analyst at Public Campaign, a nonpartisan election finance reform group. He is co-editor of the The Gulf WarReader, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, The American Prospect, The Progressive, Salon, Wired and Tikkun.
