Slice-o-Life: The Value of Going Bullmoose

Slice-o-Life: The Value of Going Bullmoose
by Mike Madias, Clinical Sociologist and Columnist

August 14, 2002

Columnist Mike Madias It is common wisdom that a vote for a third party candidate is a "wasted vote." The standard bearers for such parties will never be elected. Even popular ex-president Teddy Roosevelt, running as a presidential candidate on the legendary Bullmoose third party ticket in 1912, could not get elected.

Third parties seem to be the home for pretenders and political oddballs, like Jessie Ventura, Donald Trump, Pat Buchanan, and Ross Perot.

But, in this age of national politics: big money; big media; and apathetic electorate are the rules of the day. Alternative political parties and organizations are a vital part of the political process.

Major parties tend to go out of touch with the needs and demands of the public. More often then not, the choice at the ballot box is for the lesser of two evils. It can be argued that a vote for a presidential candidate from a major political party is a vote without meaning, a wasted vote.

"Going Bullmoose" in the upcoming election, means bolting long time political party ties and supporting an alternative group, like Reform, Libertarian, the Workers or the Green Party.

The major political parties use the same tools of sociological analysis to woo a shrinking group of voters: focus groups and marketing surveys. They intend to present themselves as "every man's centrist political party." There is a pretense made that there is no "silent majority." Republicans and Democrats spend money to hear the voices and the words of certain demographic groups, "people likely to vote." No effort is made to take back lost demographic ground with a new idea or policy approach. Parties in power do not encourage un orchestrated public debate.

A good phrase that is nothing but clap trap in a focus group held in the basement of a suburban church, can end up verbatim, (and even attributed) in a Presidential address. The parties may jump on a good sound byte, but they are not in the business of marketing new, different and unpopular ideas.

Political parties have the function winning elections and this means that their actions are dedicated to generating popularity.

It is only in alternative political parties, the parties of the Bullmoose, that new ideas are voiced, argued freely, and presented to the public intellectual marketplace. All kinds of ideas are hoisted up the flagpole. Some fly smartly. Those ideas that have public appeal eventually get incorporated in the platforms of the major parties.

The New Deal social policies of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations had their first airing in the words of William Jennings Bryan, of the Populist third party candidate around the turn of the century.

The southern Republicans are just "Dixiecrats" who went Bullmoose behind the candidacy of George Wallace. Ronald Reagan's election was the result of west coast Republicans who bolted from the eastern establishment and Rockefeller control of the GOP.

The religious right, now close to the heart of the GOP, is the offshoot of Pat Robertson's run for the presidency.

The new, more conservative techno Democratic party, has appropriated some sheets of lumber from the platform of Ross Perot's Reform party candidacy, and a smidgeon of Green.

John Anderson, Ralph Nader, and Jerry Brown have all had their ideas heard and mixed into the pot that serves up Republican and Democratic party rhetoric.

The debate on control of campaign finance, part of the issue package presented by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), has it's echo in 89 year old Granny Dee, Doris Hancock; she is the woman who walked across America a couple of years ago in an effort to promote the need for campaign reform.

Walking across America? There just is not that kind of passion from a blow dried, sociologically correct, spin doctored candidate. But there is passion, and intellectual integrity in path of the Bullmoose: the Green Party, the Reform Party, the Libertarians; and Worker's Party.

In alternative political movements, there are new ideas. Some of them are half baked for sure, and in need of debate and refinement. Our two major parties need new ideas. They are poorly equipped to generate these ideas. But, they are well equipped to appropriate ideas, rhetoric and policies from third parties.

While the major parties do not seem to care if apathy erodes the ranks of active voters, they do concern themselves if there is a slippage of votes from the mainstream parties to the alternative Bullmoose parties.

If politics is about personalities and who comes off better on television, then maybe fast-food politics, electing the lesser of two numbskulls is the thing to stick with.

But, if someone wants an issue or an idea to gnaw at, an idea that may sound unusual, at first, but with some chewing can yield real nourishment to our society; that type of politics is along the path less taken, the path of the Bullmoose.

As an aside, maybe Steve Forbes, John McCain, or some other candidate would prefer to be a bull moose rather than a dark horse. ***

Photo of Mike Madias courtesy of the author

A clinical sociologist living in the Metropolitan Detroit area, Mike's work has appeared in The Detroit News. He may be reached by e-mail at News4629@aol.com.