Government shutdown shows why the US needs a third party (Opinion)

By George P. Garmany
Here we are now in another government shutdown with neither party willing to concede until they think they can convincingly blame the other side. Why is this happening so regularly? The two-party system in the United States fails to deliver adequate governance for our country. Both major parties have become increasingly polarized, spending more time demonizing each other than on matters of practical policy. Each Congressional party focuses its attention on the president, either blindly supporting or opposing his policies, depending only on his party affiliation. Since partisan politics have become so polarized and compromise has become a dirty word, many voters feel disenfranchised and excluded. Neither party deserves our support, and the situation cries out for a third party.
Attempts have been made to establish third parties, usually driven by a charismatic leader who wants to be president. Such attempts are inevitably doomed by the Electoral College, which is stacked against third-party presidential candidates. And any thought of changing or abolishing the Electoral College will simply never get through Congress. This has always seemed to be a dead end for all potential change.
Are we citizens destined to become increasingly frustrated, perceiving the “opposite” 50% of the populace as stupid and totally deluded on political matters? I submit that this is an illusion of our current two-party binary point of view. While there are certainly fanatics on both sides of the political divide, most citizens want surprisingly similar things and are not nearly as far apart as our elected leaders (who need to gin up polarization to win elections) would have us believe. So, how can we change our system to represent the large group that simply wants better government policy? This will take time, and it’s not simple.
We should create a third party to run candidates for Congress, but not for the presidency. This does not require a Constitutional amendment! The Constitution makes no statements about partisan representation. Elected officials in this party would not be members of other parties or politically bound for or against the president. Their caucus would concentrate on the usefulness of proposed bills, not just on how the issues affect the president. If such a party occupied just 10-15% of Congressional seats, it would prevent the overbearing majorities of the current parties. No president should have a lap dog Congress without interest in curbing his excesses. Similarly, Congress should never be institutionally opposed to presidential policy. A third-party buffer group would force members of Congress to actually do the work of creating majorities to support legislative proposals.
Oh, but how to get candidates in this “Congressional Reform Caucus” elected? The issues described here are hardly the things that turn out voters. There are not many issues that really unite Americans, but huge numbers of citizens agree that Congress is not doing its job well. One issue that could unite many voters from both sides would be term limits for members of Congress and the Supreme Court. If candidates for this reform party would advocate for Congressional term limits of, say, eighteen years in each Chamber and a similar limit for Supreme Court justices, they would have an issue to attract support from many diverse voters. Of course, establishing term limits would require Constitutional amendments and would take years of legislative effort to bring about. In the meantime, we could have a better-functioning Congress and a constructive way to channel the terrible frustration that Americans have with the status quo.
We the People are smart enough to know that there are always more than two ways to reach any destination. Why, then, should we limit ourselves to only two major political parties? The road forward requires that we listen to one another and that our legislators pay more attention to the electorate than they do to the president. A third party, independent from presidential politics, is an achievable path to liberate ourselves from the current polarization that promotes government shutdowns, frustration, despair and even political violence.
George P. Garmany, a former Boulder resident, lives in Berthoud.