A new political party called Forward will be co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and former Republican New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman. Reuters reports that the new party hopes to become a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties in the United States.
Stephen Stambough, professor of political science at Cal State Fullerton, believes the announcement of the formation of a new national political third party is aimed to appeal to millions of voters dismayed by the dysfunctional two-party system.
Stambough said:
“We have seen attempts at creating third parties many times in American history, and they almost always fail for a simple reason: our election system. Our election system is designed to produce a single winner unlike some parliamentary systems in other countries. Because of that, there is tremendous natural pressure to create two options which are loose coalitions of moderate to extreme conservatives and moderate to extreme liberals.”
“If either of these coalitions split into a third party, the other party would have a tremendous advantage on election day and almost always win.”
“If the moderates tried to form a third party, the likely outcome is not to win but to make the two major parties even more ideologically extreme. The only way for a third party to be a viable option is to change the election system which is happening in a few states and local governments.”
Learn more about Stephen Stambough.