During the 2018 and 2016 elections you may have heard of some other parties that are not Democrat or Republican. You may have heard terms such as “Libertarian” or “Green Party.” These parties are third parties in America’s government. Yes, believe it or not it’s not just Democrat or Republican, you have more of a choice.
Now the third party that is the largest is the Libertarian Party. The concept of Libertarianism is having as little government (and as much freedom) as possible. You may have heard about their candidate in the 2016 election Gary Johnson who ran in the 2018 midterms and got 15.5% in the Senate Midterms.
The next biggest third party in America would be the Green party. They are a left wing progressive party that is against war and violence and believes in Green politics. The idea of Green politics is creating a government that is rooted in environmentalism, anti-war and violence and social justice. They also believe that the government should pay for college and eliminate the idea of student debt.
There is another group of politicians but not so much a political party. They’re the independents. Independent candidates do not identify themselves with a party, but most have democratic-leaning views.
Now that you know about some of the third parties in America you can hear what FCS thinks about third parties. First I asked Dev Gupta in 8th grade what he thought of third party candidates, and he said, “I think it’s great to have third party candidates to offer a different perspective compared to the standard Democratic-Republican views.” Next I asked History teacher Mrs. E.B. who said she was a “big fan of the concept of third parties especially because when we were founding the country this wasn’t what it was supposed to look like. However, I have a problem with people voting for a third party because they don’t like the other two candidates.”
by William Coleman ’23