Ed Kilgore: Wrong on third parties

Ed Kilgore, solid neoliberal that he is, sets up a cheap straw man in claiming little support for third parties or the ideas behind them. It has three main points.

1. He looks only at "triangulationist" third party ideas of the Tom "My Head is Flat" Friedman types or else tea party wet dreams of small or capital L Libertarianism, Christian right Constitution Party, or a blend. No Green or Socialist type ideas get mentioned. Do they have support? Possibly? In the middle of the last decade, the Dallas Morning News had a "where are they now" extended profile on local 1960s civil rights leaders. Half of them said they no longer voted.

That gets to ...

2. Poor voter turnout as a sign of discontent and wanting something different, even if voters aren't sure as to what. Kilgore doesn't even talk about this.

 3. He similarly ignores how truly liberal positions, when not labeled as "liberal," get decent polling support. Related to that, he ignores how the right demonizes such positions, pulling the GOP further right, with neolib Democrats like Kilgore then following.

Beyond those three basic points, at the level of states, like here in the Abandoned Pointy Object State, he ignores how Rs and Ds actively, colludingly, conspire against third parties.

This is all the "brilliance" of Ed Kilgore and Washington Monthly. In other words, bullshit.

Ed, in a Tweet, says this is an ad hominem. Really? Then why didn't you mention third parties of the left, among other things? Why don't you address why U.S. voting turnout is the lowest in the developed world? Why don't you address how hard it is for third parties in general to get on state ballots? Why don't you address how Rs and Ds have killed fusion ballots in many states?