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| Kelly Hacker is a freshman journalism major and writes 'HackAttack' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. |
Could you go through life with only two choices for every decision?
Most would say no.
So why does it seem that we only have two choices when it comes to our political system?
In America, you're either a Republican or a Democrat, and if you don't agree with either, get out of the way.
Our political system is entrenched by the two major opposing parties; the issues have gotten stale, the same people have been in office for years (Ted Kennedy has been in the Senate since 1962) and there's no sign of any fresh voices coming in to offer new viewpoints.
But it doesn't have to be that way, and it shouldn't be that way.
America needs a third party -- a strong third party that would change up the old party lines and offer new ideas on today's issues.
In fact, we have an abundance of third parties to choose from; www.politics1.com lists more than 35 distinct, lesser-known political parties in the United States.
In America, we have the American Heritage Party (which founds all its principles on the Bible), the American Nazi Party, the Communist Party USA, the Constitution Party (with right-wing ideals that only a few Republicans dare to dream about), the Grassroots Party, the Green Party, the Labor Party, the Libertarian Party, the Natural Law Party, the New Party, "America's Oldest Third Party" -- the Prohibition Party (probably unpopular on college campuses), Ross Perot's Reform Party, several varieties of the Socialist party, the Southern Party and others too numerous to mention.
Here's a quick synopsis of three you might be familiar with:
Green Party: The party that supposedly lost the 2000 election for Gore. The 10 core values of the Green Party are: a grassroots democracy (meaning public participation in government), social justice and equal opportunity, ecological wisdom, non-violence, decentralization (less power to a small group of wealthy people), community-based economics and economic justice, feminism and gender equality, respect for diversity, personal and global responsibility and a focus on the future. They also like the idea of medicinal marijuana.
Libertarian Party: "America's largest third party." Libertarians are neither left nor right; they believe in total individual liberty -- pro-drug legalization, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-home-schooling, anti-gun control -- and total economic freedom -- anti-welfare, anti-government regulation of business, anti-minimum wage, anti-income tax and pro-free trade. The LP espouses a classical laissez-faire ideology which, they argue, means "more freedom, less government and lower taxes."
Reform Party: Obviously, these people are out to reform. Here are their beefs: There should be higher ethical standards for the White House and Congress; they want to balance the budget, reform the campaigns, create a new tax system, promote jobs in the U.S., lobby reform and deal with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
And that's only three parties that differ from the two dominating ones. People should be aware that there are more than two political ideologies to get behind. Life is not painted in black and white, and our political system shouldn't be either.
Falling in with whichever party you are most familiar with or with the one your parents belong to is easy.
Finding one that fits your own ideas is a bit more challenging. It's an important challenge to answer.
Write to Kelly at knhacker@bsu.edu
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