COLUMN: Third parties draw out debate on tough issues

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by Adam Hunter

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Nothing, perhaps, has engendered that feeling (for me, anyway) more than the sight of goofy, lovable old Ross Perot up on the Bully Pulpit raving about something or other ("lemme show you some charts ...").

Let me tell you a story. This summer I spent some time in Paris working for a computer firm. (It was a good experience; I highly recommend it. They told me only three things in Paris were cheap -- bread, wine and sex. I got to experience two of the three. You guess which two.)

One day, I was sitting with my co-workers at lunch when the subject of politics came up. French politics, by the way, make guerilla warfare look clean.

One of them asked me which party I held sway with, but before I could make up a noncommittal response, another guy leaned across and said, "Ah, American politics -- zey are all alike -- Republicans" in the same tone of voice he might have said, "Ah, zees bakery, it has but one type of bread. I spit on it -- ptoeee."

Several things struck me about this comment.

First, would that it were true; that man would be head of the Republican National Conven-tion.

Second, to them, our politics must seem really, really bland. I mean, they have over 20 mainstream parties that form coalitions, factions, etc., with names like French Socialist Front and other things straight out of a Van Damme movie. We have national conventions just to nominate a predetermined candidate. Whoop-de-do. It's perfectly understandable that the Frenchman might be tempted to lump the two parties together.

Third, really, it's kind of sad that the American public has only this little, sad third party to get excited about. Some people may not realize this, but America has had periods in its history when there were more than two people with a serious chance to win the presidency!

Really! Amazing, no? Democratic Republicans and Whigs and Tories and Republican Democrats and Federalists and all sorts of other exciting things.

Kinda makes you wonder what happened to them all. Perhaps people even voted back then! (White, male, land-owning Anglo-Saxon people over the age of 21.)

In fact, if you look at most countries that are "new democracies," like the former Soviet republics, you find that they have many, many parties.

A coalition effort, for example, elected current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- not any one party.

And I, for one, hope that some day America gets back to that ideal -- the ideal of George Washington, who didn't even believe in political parties because they stifled creative political effort (among other, more mundane reasons).

Some people, upon hearing this, say, "But you're a Republican, crazy! You stupid or what? It should be clear to everybody by now that all Perot does is suck votes from Bush and Dole!" Not so and especially not this year. What Perot and his party do (and excel at) is get ideas into the minds of American people.

As far as I'm concerned, the more press ideas like balancing the budget (which the Republicans are very good at and the Democrats are just wannabes) get, the better off all Republicans are.

Even if that were true, I would still support it. Even if the Republicans lost in the short term, I cannot help but believe that in the long run, everyone will benefit from the increased debate, increased coverage and varied options available, not to mention increased voter turnout (turnout for the '92 election was significantly higher than usual).

And anyone who believes in their own ideology (as I do) must believe that by exposing people to the true messages behind an election, as opposed to the character assassinations and TV ads, their party can only benefit.

So I say, "Welcome Reform Party, infomercials and all."

Adam Hunter is vice president of the Rice Republicans and a Will Rice College junior.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the September 13, 1996 issue.

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