Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America / Edition 1

by Micah L. Sifry

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415931434
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/11/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

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 War Reader, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, The Nation, The American Prospect, The Progressive, Salon, Wired and Tikkun.

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I. Challenging the DuopolyIntroductionChapter 1 The People Want More DemocracyChapter 2 The Moment is RipePart II. Organizing the MiddleChapter 3 Mad as Hell, Used and AbusedChapter 4 The Rise (and Fall) of the Reform PartyChapter 5 Getting Past PerotPart III. Organizing the LeftChapter 6 Compost Rotten PoliticsChapter 7 Nader's GambleChapter 8 The Duopoly Strikes BackPart IV. Organizing the BottomChapter 9 A Safe Way out of the Box? Chapter 10 The Little Third Party That CouldPart V. The FutureChapter 11 Looking AheadAppendixEndnotesIndex

What People are Saying About This

Jesse Ventura

Finally, the whole story of the rise of third-party politics. If you want the facts on the revolution that's just beginning, read this book.

Ralph Nader

At last, an engrossing book about Third Parties that is dynamic and portentous for the future of American Politics.

Editorial Reviews

No one knows third-party politics like Micah Sifry. Spoiling for a Fights delves deeply into the real story of today's outside-the-box politics and the threat posed by third parties to the stuck-in-the-muck two-party system. The past, present and future of America's third-parties: it's all here. —The Nation

David Corn

Both sobering and empowering. Whether you like Ross Perot, Jesse Ventura and Ralph Nader or want to wring their necks, you've got to read this book.

Arianna Huffington

[A] commanding survey of third parties...Sifry demonstrates a remarkable political fluency....His portrayals of the Nader campaign and of Jesse Ventura's upset victory in the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election are among the most subtle and incisive accounts I've seen...In a more politically developed country, Sifry's reporting would be the gold standard of contemporary journalism.

Newsday

[W]ith intelligence, a massive array of facts and a sly wit. Sifry presents a vivid tapestry of the problems faced by, as well the enormous potential promise of, alternative political parties...[He] presents a balanced, important and enlightened new way to think through the political process.

Publishers Weekly

For anyone interested in learning about alternatives to the two major American parties, this book is definitely worth reading. Sifry, currently a senior analyst with Public Campaign, a nonprofit election reform group, writes with compassion, if not always balance, about the voter's need for more electoral choices. He chronicles the development of Ross Perot's Reform Party, including Jesse Ventura's successful organization in Minnesota, Ralph Nader's Green Party, and the Working Families Party in New York State. The stories are enriched with quotes and insights from candidates and key players. However, the author fails to explain the drawbacks associated with changes in electoral laws that would permit small parties to win office (i.e., a parliamentary-type system), namely, multiparty coalitional governments, more extremist candidates (some of whom would gain office, as in Switzerland, Austria, and Israel), and further fragmentation of the American electorate. Still, Sifry's work dovetails nicely with Gordon S. Black and Benjamin Black's The Politics of American Discontent (LJ 4/15/94) and is also more readable than that book. Should the reader seek a more balanced and analytical account, Steven J. Rosentone and others' Third Parties in America (Princeton Univ., 1996. 2d ed.) is a classic. Recommended for all public and academic libraries. Thomas J. Baldino, Wilkes Univ., Wilkes-Barre, PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

"...in Spoiling for a Fight, [Sifry] has given us a sterling piece of contemporary political history...he also delivers a tough-minded critical analysis--based on detailed, first-hand observation--that can serve as a manual of dos and don'ts for citizens striving for a new kind of electoral politics." -- Doug Ireland, In These Times
"[A] commanding survey of third parties...Sifry demonstrates a remarkable political fluency. ..His portrayals of the Nader campaign and of Jesse Ventura's upset victory in the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election are among the most subtle and incisive accounts I've seen...In a more politically developed country, Sifry's reporting would be the gold standard of contemporary journalism." -- Newsday
"At last, an engrossing book about Third Parties that is dynamic and portentous for the future of American Politics." -- Ralph Nader
"Finally, the whole story of the rise of third-party politics. If you want the facts on the revolution that's just beginning, read this book." -- Jesse Ventura

From the Publisher