3rd Party
Think Tank

How It Can Work

A Summary

The Problem &
The Solution

The Principle of Minority Power

The Last
Successful
Third Party

Coalitions of Constituencies

Good Governance

Collaboration
and Consensus

Resources

Do You Have
a Representative?

News & Topics

Are You Interested?

New Political Parties
and Independent Politics
Could Save American Democracy

But No One Knows How to Make It Happen
Many Americans seem to be ready for an overhaul of our political system, but no one alive today has ever done anything like this. It happened only once in American political history—when the Republican Party was born in the 1850s.

So we need to learn how to create an effective third party and political independence in the twenty-first century.

Can We Teach Each Other?
Perhaps we could begin with an incubator where the concepts and principles of new parties and minority political power will be shaped. We need a new kind of think tank—an online think tank—where you and your internet-neighbors are the thinkers.

Do We Still Need This—After the '08 Elections?
We do. The Republican Party lost both houses of Congress in 2006, and the Presidency in 2008, but none of the fundamentals changed.

The divided power we realized after the 2006 election was completely ineffective. It always is. Power divided between the Executive and Legislative Branches tends to fall into perennial deadlock. Nothing really bad happens—but nothing particularly good occurs either. And it always ends, returning eventually to monopoly power.

For two years,we almost had a minority power situation in the Senate. There were 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats, and two independents. If the independents had formed their own coalition, and not voted with the Democrats on Senate organization, perhaps they could have begun the movement to minority power. That didn't happen, of course, because both of thm voted with the Democratic caucus.
(See the articles on The Principle of Minority Power and The Three-Party Solution)

Now, we're back to one-party dominance of the entire political structure. All of the problems of majority power will re-emerge. The leadership vacuum we witnessed in the 110th Congress will be unmitigated in the 111th. Permanent change can't result from a change in major party power. It will require organized effort of a different kind.

Click here for A Summary of Essential Third Party Principles

Please Speak Up…

• If you have a response or an additional thought regarding something on this page,
• If you'd like to write an article for possible publication on these pages,
• If you have an idea or suggestion about developing the think tank…

…Send it along to: partyiii@greatreality.com

The November, 2008 election brought many changes, across the polical spectrum.

It has not, however, changed the fundamental principles expressed on these pages.

A major revision of these pages is currently underway, to add content, and to update specific references to parties, events, etc. In the course of the revision, minor changes will be posted on some pages.

While, that revision proceeds, please read the information posted here for its fundamental ideas and principles.

As always, your comments are welcome: partyiii@greatreality.com