Observations From the Back Row

By Rich Kozlovich

The Rasmussen Report ran this article asking, "What America Thinks: Is a Third Party the Way?", saying:

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump seemed the inevitable major party presidential candidates early in the primary season, and many voters weren’t happy about that choice. A sizable number talked about staying home on Election Day or voting for a third-party candidate. Libertarian Gary Johnson, in particular, was an early beneficiary of this kind of talk, but as the election nears, it seems voters once again – as they do every four years with rare exception – are abandoning the third-party candidates to vote for the Republican or Democratic nominee.

Was there ever a successful third party in the United States?  Yes, the Republican Party.  The Republican Party came into existence at the expense of the Whig Party, which fell apart because of the internal tension and "deep fissures" over slavery. Party members either quit politics, joined the newly formed Republican party, the No Nothing Party, the Constitution Union Party, or as in some cases, even became Democrats. 

The only one to survive the demise of the Whigs was the Republican Party, and now that's in trouble.  Will a successful third party be formed from the framework of the Republican Party? No!  Not right now.  Not in the current economic climate.  But if the economy collapses worldwide, as I'm expecting to happen with ten years - and in my opinion closer to five - that will be the game changer.  

As Ken Moraif of Money Matters notes:

"the global economy is not growing organically. It is simply spending borrowed money which gives the appearance of growth but hides the worsening problem of mounting debt.  When the tipping point comes, and what will trigger it, is very difficult to predict. That there will be a tipping point and that the repercussions of all of this debt will be severe is not that difficult to predict, in our opinion. When the next market crash comes, we believe we will look back and say that it was obvious that artificially low interest rates for all these years, and $200 trillion worth of global debt would have brought on the crash.. . . . ."

The leadership in the Republican Party shares a huge burden of blame for this because they're the ones who ran saying they would stop all the insane spending and borrowing by Obama and the Democrats who openly run on spending and borrowing. So who were the hypocrites over this? 

Until then what we'll see is the power structure of the party in a continual state of flux.  The divide between the liberal Rockefeller wing under Ryan and McConnell and the conservative Reagan wing with the Cruz and Jordan crowd will widen beyond repair and one or the other will take over the party leadership and some will leave the party, some will leave politics and some will join a third party or the Democrats.

But one things seem clear to me.  The Republican party - no matter who wins this election - will cease to exist as we currently know it.  The dissatisfaction within the party membership is huge.  Let's face it - that's why a man like Trump was nominated.  It was a vote expressing massive dissatisfaction with the leadership of the party and their actions, or in reality their inaction while in control of Congress, because they were more concerned with getting re-elected than serving the public. 

With all the criminal scandals pouring out about Hillary does anyone really believe she would still be in contention against Cruz?  And who's at fault for all of that?  The Republican leadership!  They're incapable of articulating a position because they have no vision, all the while condemning as radical the one candidate who could - Cruz! 

Make no mistake about this.  The next four years are going to be critical to the survival of the Constitution.