Against extreme polarization on the eve of an important election, well-known names in the political field come together to form a third way that wants to be neither right nor left, but forward. In the United States.
This is what Forward (or “forward”, “forward”, in Portuguese) proposes, a new political party that aims to break the bipartisanship and dispute space with the Democrats and Republicans, monopolists of the country’s party scene.
“We reject the extreme left and the extreme right, we seek a field of consensus,” says the legend’s platform, which sells itself at the center of the ideological spectrum.
What draws attention in the announcement of the new acronym is that it already arrives in the arena with names best known to voters, coming out of the structures of Democrats and Republicans.
They are co-presidents Christine Todd Whitman, a former Republican who ruled New Jersey, and Andrew Yang, a former Democrat who has become best known in the 2020 presidential race.
With them, dozens of former members of traditional parties, some of them with experience in government — one of the political forces that make up the new party is the Renew America Movement, which brings together former members of Republican administrations.
The US already has a number of smaller parties, but all of them are small, with Libertário being the most expressive – the party had 1 seat out of 435 in the House until the beginning of this year and received 1.8 million votes in the last presidential election. . In addition to libertarians, the American system includes even smaller parties, such as the Green and Constitution parties, among others.
For 169 years, the country has not elected a president who is not a Democrat or a Republican. The last was Millard Fillmore, who ruled between 1850 and 1853 for the Whig party, a legend that would later be absorbed by the Republican Party.
But there have been more recent attempts. In 2000, Ralph Nader of the Green Party won about 2.9 million votes and was accused by Democrats of having subtracted votes from Al Gore, particularly in Florida, where Nader won 97,488 votes. Al Gore’s defeat in the state, by just 537 votes, cost him the presidency.
Forward, which wants to change this scenario, will officially launch at the end of September, with a tour of events in dozens of cities to publicize its platform.
The bet is to win over Americans who do not see themselves represented by either Democrats or Republicans. Last year’s Gallup poll found that 62% of respondents said a third subtitle was needed.
But the country’s electoral system, known as “winner-takes-all,” is hampering the rise of a new party, says Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego.
In Brazil, the electoral quotient system distributes seats in the Chamber of Deputies according to the number of votes each party had. In the US district system, it does not matter how many votes went to the candidates who were not elected to represent a constituency: only the one with the most votes is chosen.
“If you vote for a candidate with little chance of winning, you waste your vote. To avoid that, you end up deciding between the two with the most chance, usually the one you reject the least. It’s different from a proportional system, where a party who wins 5% of the votes has 5% of the seats”, says Kousser. “This discourages voters and a candidate who could have 5% of the votes ends up with 1% or 2%, which in the end is useless”, she says.
No wonder, the main banner of the new party is electoral reform. The caption also defends universal basic income and evidence-based government, among the little that has been released so far. However, it is possible to map something of the group’s platform from speeches and articles that have been published in recent weeks.
“As for guns, for example, most Americans do not agree with the far left’s calls to confiscate all guns and repeal the Second Amendment, but they are also concerned about the far right’s insistence on eliminating gun laws.” wrote the founders in the American newspaper The Washington Post at the end of July.
“On climate change, most Americans do not agree with the far left’s calls to completely overturn our economy and way of life, but they also reject the far right’s denial that there is a problem. On abortion, most Americans disagrees with the extreme left’s views on late-term abortions, but is also alarmed by the extreme right’s quest to make choosing a woman a criminal offense.”
There is some doubt among political observers in the country, however, about the viability of a party that proposes to escape the strong American polarization.
“The most successful third-way parties in US history have been precisely those that have galvanized a narrow slice of society with a specific set of problems,” wrote New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. “Those who further polarized the electorate managed to change the political picture and forced established parties to recognize their influence.”
This was the case, for example, of the ultra-right AIP (American Independent Party), which in 1968 launched the governor of Alabama George Wallace, against the civil rights of blacks and defending racial segregation. He received nearly 10 million votes and was the most voted in five southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The third way in the USA
John Adams Second US president (1797-1801), he was the first president affiliated with a political party, the Federalist Party; his predecessor, George Washington, was not linked to any
Democrat-Republicans and Whigs Until the mid-19th century, before American politics essentially split between Democrats and Republicans, the Whigs and Democrat-Republicans each made four presidents.
George Wallace Former Alabama governor who left the Democratic party received 10 million votes in 1968, when he ran for president for the AIP (American Independent Party), with a platform against the civil rights of blacks and an advocate of racial segregation.
Ralph Nader Candidate for the Green Party in 2000, he received 2.9 million votes; his candidacy was seen by Democrats as the reason for Al Gore’s defeat to George W. Bush, after the Republican won by 537 votes in Florida, which guaranteed his election.
Libertarians The largest third-way party, it had its best recent performance in the 2016 presidential election, when Gary Johnson won 4.5 million votes, 3.3% of the total.
