The More, The Merrier: A Look into Why a Multi-Party System Might Benefit the U.S.
By Max Leonard
A growing sense of political unease in the U.S. is no secret these days. Whether it is watching people mince words around the Thanksgiving table to not set off relatives, or meeting someone new and having to ask about their political affiliation. In life and in nature, things are rarely binary, and maybe it’s time that the U.S. political parties catch up.
While it might seem odd to imagine the U.S. without the two distinct political parties, originally things were much different with founding fathers, such as Alexander Hamilton as well as George Washington, despising the idea of the U.S. having any political parties at all. Washington specifically warned in his farewell address in 1796 that political factions, as they were called then, would lead to a “frightful despotism.” Despite those warnings, political parties in U.S. formed. The early Federalist Party, which would eventually become the modern-day Republican Party, and the Democratic-Republican Party, which became the modern-day Democratic Party.
With growing political unrest and general dissatisfaction towards public officials, most people might feel trapped into voting for a candidate they do not fully agree with, just to pick who they feel would be the “lesser of two evils.”
Furthermore, constant trade-offs with the house and senate majorities in favor of either party have led to gridlock. As both sides struggle to accomplish their goals, the idea of a third party might seem more appealing. Another current thorn in the side of the two-party system is the growing presence and public awareness of gerrymandering, essentially allowing for parties to ensure their win while outlining districts where they are most likely to win.
The idea of more parties in U.S. democracy is nothing new, with the most recent large-scale attempt of forming a new party being from democratic mayoral candidate of New York, Andrew Yang. In 2021, Yang founded a new party, The Forward Party, to be a centrist third option to those isolated by both far right and far left ideologies, and while this party has struggled to find footing in major elections, the idea of a more prominent or more available party besides republican or democrat was appealing to voters.
While looking at elections both big and small, it’s easy to wonder what things would look like in a country where there was an easier way for smaller parties to find a substantial foothold in the U.S. political landscape. By offering more choices and lending more weight and attention to their beliefs and causes, it might help ease the rising tensions between the two major current parties, who both account for a large spectrum of beliefs. While not every Democrat is a leftist, not every Republican is a conservative. Politics is a spectrum and a two-party system struggles to allow ways for new ideas to break into the voting market come election season.
While many might be apprehensive about doing away with the two-party system that has long stood over U.S. elections, it’s important to note that not all countries have this struggle. One country to look at in this case would be Germany where, according to The Federal Returning Officer, in 2017 Germany’s election claimed electoral victory with 5.9 million votes out of 61.5 million voters, approximately 10% of the registered voters were able to determine the election, compared to the U.S. where Trump became the republican nominee from 14 million votes, which is approximately only 6% of the eligible U.S. voter population. In an article for Vox, author of the book “Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop,” Lee Drutman writes, “In short, when voters in both countries were given the full range of options, Donald Trump was less popular in the United States than the AfD was in Germany.”
The U.S. is not without its own third parties, the most well known being the Green Party, Libertarians, as well as the Reform Party. Before Biden dropped out of the race, The Pew Research Center reported that 68% of voters felt unsatisfied with current presidential candidates Trump and Biden, whereas 2024 Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver won the primary by 60.6%. Oliver is running on an anti-war platform, a stark difference from Biden’s unwavering support for Israel, which has turned away a lot of younger voters for whom the war in Palestine is a key issue.
The U.S. is in a difficult place politically and many people, myself included, express frustration at going to the polls every year to check a box, knowing that most of our concerns will go unanswered and promises unfulfilled, while voting for the lesser of two evils to keep our basic human rights intact. Voting should not come down to a game of which candidate is likely to do the least evil, rather there should be ample room for the frustrations of the American people to be heard and have a candidate who listens, or one who is willing to do more rather than going to the polls to kick a political can down the road.