Past Due: Time for a Third Party Uprising

In an editorial for SC Now, out of South Carolina, Lisa Chalain-Rock argues that it is "time for a third party uprising." Some excerpts:

We may feel Republicans and Democrats are oceans apart, but the line between them is actually quite thin. Both parties bend to corporate will long before any public outcry because the corporations fund their campaigns . . .

Money drives Washington, and it’s driving this country off a cliff of no return. Both parties agree campaign finance reform needs to be done, according to their campaign speeches, but it never happens. The public approves of it. The big money doesn’t . . .

Something we agree upon should be easier to implement than thornier issues like health care, but Congress doesn’t tackle it. “Throwing the bums out” only works if the replacement doesn’t play for the same team . . .

When our calls and letters are dismissed or denied so continuously, our only true option for change is a third party to challenge the two-party duopoly over our current system. Third party and independent candidates speak out where others often don’t. As citizens, we are responsible in part for the way our country has drifted. Most people don’t vote, don’t call, don’t write and don’t pay attention to politics . . . Neither party is doing what we want. We need to fund and support candidates who will or find fresh faces to compete or run for office ourselves.