Counterpunch has this commentary by Scott McLarty of the Green Party. McLarty argues that the decline of parties of the left in the last part of the 20th century and so far in this century is the reason the left is in a weaker position today than it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Maybe it also has something to do with the Democratic Party’s having moved so far to the left.
Gene, compared to many European parties, the Democratic Party is more centrist as a whole, and politicians like Barack Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton are right-wing. A thoroughly Left-wing Democratic Party wouldn’t have given the ACA a heavy reliance on insurance corporations, but instead would have opted for a Single Payer health care system, like many of the aforementioned European countries have.
At any rate, Scott McLarty makes an outstanding point about the power third parties once had to advance policies that the Democrats and Republicans wouldn’t have on their own. If voters want the Democrats and Republicans to start listening to them again, they need to stop wallowing in fear of a “greater evil” and start voting for third parties again, and get some of their candidates into Congress and the presidential candidates past the 5% threshold. I’d preferably like to see both the Libertarian and Green Parties succeed in such a manner, as they would pressure both current ruling parties.