Eric Butterfield
Writer, Editor, Copywriter
Can Moderates Mend Our Political Divide?
A New Third Party Is Betting On It
Andrew Yang's Forward party may be a long shot at the ballot box—but maybe its attempt to mend our pathetic political conversation is reason enough for its existence.
By Eric Butterfield
August 1, 2022
After all the division that has raked our political discourse over the coals, you'd think the press might welcome a moderate third party pledging to turn down the temperature. You'd be wrong. The immediate reaction to the newly created Forward party has been a resounding "meh".
From MSNBC to New York magazine and the Washington Post, opinion writers have delivered a consistent message: This third party is going nowhere. On CNN, democratic strategist James Carville called it "a really stupid idea".
Whether Forward becomes viable at the ballot box may not be what's most important, however. We've become so wedded to our two-party system and its us-versus-them food fight that mentioning a third party evokes fears of votes being siphoned off, throwing the election. Ross Perot's presidential runs in 1992 and 1996 come to mind.
But even if Forward's political ambitions are a long shot, the movement could not come at a better time. The GOP is still fully in the grips of delusional Trump Kool-Aid drinkers and apologists for political violence.
Meanwhile, whatever rational thinking might be left in the Republican Party is overshadowed by the tragedy of the Jan. 6 insurrection. In addition, the shock of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade went against the will of the majority of our citizens. To top it off, the GOP continues to ignore that the majority of political violence is committed by right-wing thugs.
Somehow, given this wonderful opportunity to capitalize on the GOP's mendacity and the baked-in gullibility of the "stop the steal" mob, Democrats still can't step up to the plate to hit a home run, much less a single. Saddled with the stereotype of supporting "woke" culture warriors, Democrats look beholden to the abstract university lingo of disenfranchisement and "-isms" that doesn't connect with everyday Americans, who just want somebody to combat inflation so they can more easily put food on the table.
President Biden's approval rating is in the basement. Blame inflation. Blame Afghanistan. Blame Covid. Blame the entrenched elders of the careerist Democratic party. Whatever you blame, one simple truth is that too many Americans think Democrats don't even know how to talk to them anymore. Talk about a wasted opportunity. The GOP is still bogged down with a pathological liar who inspired a violent insurrection—and the Democrats can't even muster a high single-digit lead in polls tracking the upcoming mid-terms.
And so, I welcome Forward for what it claims to be—and for what it proposes to add to the political conversation. Given that the right and the left don't even talk about the same reality any more, I welcome commonsensical conversations. The knee-jerk demonizing of the other side has gotten old, as has the pre-emptive lying about election corruption that's become a permanent paranoia among Republicans.
To the GOP, Democrats are all socialists out to ruin America, and they're "politicizing" the Jan. 6 investigation. Obviously, the Republican party can't face the truth of its Trumpism—remember when we all had Trump Derangement Syndrome?
I'm reminded of 2001, when the previously loathed President George W. Bush had a 90 percent approval rating right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Well, in 2022, we attack ourselves and half of Republican voters still buy the election fraud lie of a sore loser who wouldn't transfer power peacefully. Apparently, we fight foreign-made radicalism, but we'll drink our own homegrown Kool-Aid.
The Forward Party may be miscalculating our voting public's thirst for a third party—but I welcome a more meaningful political conversation anyway. I have talked a lot politics over the years with friends and strangers, and I almost always found them to be commonsensical and willing to negotiate in good faith in an effort to solve a problem. It's a sentiment I've shared with many people, and it's almost always been reciprocated. I've never met people who deface public property for the sake of a political agenda. I don't know gullible half-wits who would attack our Capitol because of a megalomaniac's lie.
The idiotic struggle between our two major parties is dragging us through a culture war that fails to address our most basic needs. The overheated rhetoric whips up the most ideological, who are quite ready to do battle. Aren't all fanatics? Everyday Americans are tired of the crazies running the asylum, the crass ideologues clogging our Capitol's corridors. We're ready for a change. The American people are not its politicians, and we're sick of the whole big mess. If the GOP won't rein in its Trump-inspired militias, why not have a third party peel off the common sense conservatives still left who refuse to become Trump patsies like Kevin McCarthy and Lindsey Graham? Remember the Republican response to critics who foretold Trump's autocratic tendencies: Silence.
If moderate Democrats can't keep the left-wing culture warriors from soiling the reputation of the party's damaged brand, why not join a moderate movement dedicated to sanity and practical solutions to real-life problems a majority of voters actually want addressed?
I'd like to think we're waking up to what the future really looks like if we don't correct course. The ongoing black-and-white thinking of our two political parties is destructive. The debates around policy and culture need new blood and new perspectives. Doesn't anyone want to be practical anymore? Maybe Forward isn't the perfect political party or the revelatory "ah ha!" moment to solve everything. But, given the miserable state of our two major political parties, I say our democracy can benefit from a new voice and a breath of fresh air. I'm hoping Forward can deliver on that front.