This year there has been a tremendous amount of interest in third parties. While most year we have various candidates who are to the left and right of the major political parties, this year the talk has concentrated on more centrist alternatives such as Michael Bloomberg and Unity ’08. I most recently discussed some of the factors behind the push for such alternatives when reporting on Bloomberg’s announcement that he did not plan to run. A survey from Unity ’08 provides some additional insight. As this is an internet study there are the obvious limitations to the results, but some trends are of interest and might provide signs of what motivates people to get involved with such efforts.
A problem with the two party system is that it attempts to divide all political positions into two groups. The Republican Party has traditionally been the party of business, but in recent years has concentrated primarily on crony capitalism for the ultra-wealthy. The Republican Party alienates additional voters by its support for the Iraq war and the social agenda of the religious right. The Democratic Party has benefited recently on these issues, but its reputation for supporting big government and labor over professionals and businessmen has many recent Democratic voters wary of long term support.
Democrats have recently received the support of groups like “Starbucks Republicans” who are socially liberal affluent suburbanites who don’t fit in well with the base of either party. This trend can be seen in the results of the Unity ’08 survey. A breakdown of households shows that 53% are Professional or Business Class compared to 23% who categorize themselves as Working Class. Note that this does not necessarily mean a hostility towards labor as labor unions rank fairly high on survey of perceptions of institutions. The group is highly educated with 28% having a post-graduate degree, 33% being a college graduate, and an additional 28% having attended some college. The average income is $74,001.
Looking at their placement on a liberal conservative spectrum, those responding trend towards the center but place themselves to the left of center on social issues and to the right of center on economic issues. On the listing of perceptions of institutions I mentioned above, the Christian conservative movement comes in last place. Looking at the candidates from the major parties, none of them are satisfactory but Barack Obama comes in first place among the six major candidates listed.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert top Pundit Rankings, with Bill O’Reilly coming in third. While it might be tempting to attribute this to responses from younger college aged people, the average age of those responding to the survey was 51.
Unity ’08 seems more like a gimmick than a real political movement, stressing finding candidates from each party as opposed to supporting a definitive viewpoint. I doubt that they will be very successful and the real question is whether one of the major political parties will be able to win the support of such voters. To do this the Republican Party would need to abandon the views of the religious right as well as their support for the war. The Democrats will need to shake off the reputation of being the party of special interests and big government. At the moment, after seeing the failures of the Republican approach, a majority of voters are leaning towards voting Democratic. The challenge will be for the Democrats to earn the long term support of such voters and win over those now looking for an independent choice.
