Third party / independent bullshit from somebody who should know better

Bernard Tamas, a poly-sci prof at Valdosta State and author of a book on third parties, recently spoke with Politico about this year's presidential landscape.

First, his analysis of current third parties and that part of the landscape is interesting, if largely wrong IMO.

He does say the Greens have the most coherent brand while claiming Libertarians could fill the non-wingnut conservative hole that the MAGA-implosion of the Republican Party has left.

He might be right on Greens, but has he looked at the Mises Mice? They don't want that hole. They want the LP to be MAGA-nified on social issues while also being traditional LP nuts on "taxation is theft," etc." Does he not track them more?

He's right on No Labels. It's a "this election" party, in essence, if it runs everybody.

He largely ignores the independent candidates, other than a discussion of ballot access laws, which is where I'm headed with a long pull quote.

We can start with ballot access laws, which are determined state by state: how many signatures or other requirements to get candidates onto the ballot so you don’t have to write their name in but can just select them. And those laws have gotten very hard in many states over the last 100 years.

In the early part of the 20th century, it used to be really easy. And then the states just kept making requirements bigger and bigger and bigger, and there was an assumption that this is what is killing third parties.

Well, it turned out after looking at the data that this had practically nothing to do with third parties running into problems, because if it’s an actual third-party organization, that’s something they can do. They can go out and get signatures.

And the Libertarians and the Greens are getting on the ballot all over the country. The ballot access laws are not stopping them; they’re annoying them. They’re a real problem for people like Cornel West, who doesn’t have an organization. For him, it’s a real problem.

First, like the duopolists, and yes, Politico set up the piece, but he focuses on the presidential race. Tamas could have interjected downballot races into the mix, and how those tougher laws have really impacted them, but chose to color within the lines.

Second, even for the LP and GP, if they lose party-line ballot access in a state, "just getting signatures" ain't that easy. Often, it costs money for paid signature gatherers, the money they may not have a lot of, and that Cornel West doesn't really either. And, that's the point.