What Parties Do

Everyone knows political parties run candidates for public office. That's certainly a big one, but parties also do a lot of other work. Parties, particularly third parties, spend a lot of their time on outreach activities, in an attempt to educate people on the issues. They also work on issue campaigns, to pass or defeat a particular bill.

I'm a Libertarian, so I know the Libertarian Party better than any other party. I'm going to give you an example of some of the things we do with our time.

In 2006, the Libertarian Party ran a candidate for Sheriff of Arapahoe County named Kenny Waters. He ran against the Republican incumbent Grayson Robinson, who had been elected by default repeatedly because no one challenged him. So that's one of the big things we do: run candidates for public office.

His campaign was very serious, and he had a great chance of winning. You see, Libertarians don't generally have great odds (I admit that, but we'll talk about some of that later). But since Kenny was the only challenger to a Republican incumbent, his odds weren't too bad. The Democrats generally wouldn't want to vote for a Republican. And of course he would have gotten the Libertarian vote (and likely support from the Constitution Party, Green Party, and so on).

But it wasn't just a campaign for office. It was a great educational campaign. Kenny had spent several years as a deputy under Robinson, and brought some interesting information to the table. What was that information? The sheriff's office in Arapahoe County had ticket quotas. In other words, if police didn't ticket enough people, their jobs could be in danger. Nevermind if people were actually committing the crimes or not.

So far, we have two important functions of a political party: 1) Running candidates for office, and 2) running informational or educational campaigns. Those educational campaigns can go along with campaigns for office (as in the case of Kenny Waters), but they're often stand-alone deals. See an important issue? Tell people about it. That's all there is to it. But if you do it through a political party, you're working as a group, rather than just as an individual.

Among the most important activities of political parties are issue campaigns. For example, the Democrats always want to raise taxes for their pet projects. Republicans are divided. Religious Republicans always want to censor ideas and legislate morality. Non-religious Republicans always seem to do things in the interest of national security. Libertarians always want the most freedom and the least government.

And to support their positions, they run campaigns in an attempt to pass laws, repeal laws, or defeat bills currently before the legislature.

To illustrate, I'll go back to my example of Kenny Waters. I said he had a great chance of winning. In fact, I was confident he would win (what can I say--I'm optimistic). Unfortunately, the Arapahoe County Clerk & Recorder Nancy Doty (a Republican) found a loophole in Colorado state law and took him off the ballot (I wonder, if his only opposition hadn't been from her own party, would she have acted the same way?), thus securing Grayson Robinson his second default victory. You can smell the bullshit from ten miles away on this one.

So, what was that state law Doty cited when she took him off the ballot? The statue said that a candidate can't run on a particular party's ticket unless he or she has been afiliated with that party for at least 12 months. Sounds fair enough. But here's the thing. Several years ago, this battle was fought in the courts. The law said that for MAJOR parties, you had to be affiliated with that party for 12 months, UNLESS THE PARTY'S RULES SPECIFIED A DIFFERENT TIME LIMIT (we'll get to the definitions of major and minor parties in a minute). For minor parties, there was no such limitation on the statute. It was just 12 months, regardless of the party's rules.

Personally, I don't believe this was intentional (though who knows, since Democrats and Republicans likely wrote the law in the first place). I think it was a bit of careless law writing that led to the creation of a loophole (which Doty used to secure a win for her own party).

Kenny and his attorney took the matter to court, and lost. They tried to appeal to the state supreme court, but their case would not be heard. I should point out that Kenny's attorney, who was not a Libertarian, only charged the party for his services until the election, after which, he fought our battle free of charge, because it was the right thing to do.

Well, long story short, the fighting went on, until just recently the Colorado state legislature has passed a bill correcting this problem. The bill is currently on the Governor's desk (at this point, he'll either sign it into law, or it will become law without his signature). Major and minor parties are now equal.

The Libertarian party is also involved in issue campaigns on many other matters, such as supporting pro self-defense legislation.

These are the types of things political parties do.

Major and Minor Parties

This will be a breif section. Upon first reading, one might assume that major parties are the Democrats and Republicans while minor parties are everyone else (Libertarians, Greens, etc.). Well, yes and no. It's true that the only major parties are currently the Democrats and Republicans. It's not true that major parties are defined as "Democrats and Republicans only."

I'll illustrate by example. I know Colorado best, so we'll talk about how it works in Colorado. Major party status is determined by a party's most recent results in a gubernatorial election. If a party's candidate for governor gets 10% of the vote, that party is a major party. Currently, Democrats and Republicans are the only parties getting that status (and they get it every year). But it's possible that Libertarians could start getting 10% or 20% of the vote, and then the Libertarian Party would be a major party, too.

Indeed, it's possible that, say, the Libertarians and the Greens could replace the Democrats and Republicans as the major parties, by each getting around 50% of the vote.

It's a system biased toward the bipartisan, Democrats vs. Republicans idea, certainly. But that doesn't mean it always has to be that way.

A Bit About the Parties

One shouldn't choose to be a Democrat or a Republican just because they think it's the lesser of two evils. One should choose the party with which one most agrees, whether that's the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Libertarian Party or the Constitution Party.

But the question is, how does one know which party is right? Look no further. I'm going to tell you a bit about the most popular parties (that is, the ones that are most active). I certainly don't want to seem biased or elitist, but do we really need to read about the Commonwealth Party?

So here's what I'm going to do. If a party had ballot access and enough potential electoral votes to win the Presidency in 2004 or has ballot access and enough potential electoral votes to win in 2008, I'll include them. If not, I won't (sorry, Christian Falangist Party of America).

The Libertarian Party

Ah, the Libertarian Party. You can find a more detailed introduction to the Libertarian Party via the link from the Politcal Parties homepage. This is my home.

The platform of the Libertarian Party of Colorado, which I helped to write (but I must give credit to all other members of the 2007 Platform Committe), says: "...[T]he [Libertarian] party shall always be in favor of the position which ensures the greatest freedom to the people while protecting individual rights."

In essence, Libertarians believe that you should be able to think, say, or do anything you want as long as you don't hurt other people (hurting other people includes financially, in case you didn't get that). To phrase it better, your rights are supreme. The only (and I do mean ONLY) limitation on your rights are the equal rights of others.

To learn more, visit:
The Libertarian National Committee
The Libertarian Party of Colorado

The Constitution Party

I'm a Libertarian, but these guys are alright by me, too. While the Constitution Party is just a little too "right wing/religious" for my taste, their hearts are in the right place. The Constitution Party (correctly) believes that the government is violating the Constitution. They support following the Constitution completely and totally, which is great.

Where I differ from the Constitution Party is their stance on moral issues. They're primarily a Christian party that definately has an ultra-conservative stance on these matters.

In essence, the Constitution Party are conservatives. Of course, we already have a conservative party, the Republicans. But the Constitution Party believes that the Republican Party, while maintaining a conservative stance (at least on the surface), is violating the Constitution every chance they get (and they're correct in that).

To learn more, visit:
The Constitution Party's Official Website

The Green Party

If the Constitution Party could be considered watered down Republicans, then the Green Party could be considered watered down Democrats. The Greens are a liberal party with a major focus on environmental issues.

I certainly don't agree with a lot of what the Green Party has to say, but they're a definate step up from the Democrats or Republicans (then, almost everything is a step up from that).

To learn more, visit:
The Green Party Website

The Democratic Party

The Democrats are all about freedom of thought, action, and expression. Those are all great things. Unfortunately, they also want your money (and usually, your guns). Personally, I think the Democratic Party, while they've got the right idea about personal or social issues, don't have the first clue about economics or fiscal issues.

The Democrats, like socialists, believe that social equality can only be achieved through redistributing the wealth. And how better to do that than through state sponsored social programs, such as welfare or food stamps?

To learn more, visit:
The Democratic Party Website

The Republican Party

Well, the Democrats want your money. The Republicans, on the other hand, properly recognize that your money is your property (Republicans are Capitalists), and government shouldn't touch it. Unfortunately, the Republicans like to control your thoughts and actions. Legislating morality, in other words (non-religious Republicans are a little better, but still support the stifling of individual rights in the interest of, say, national security).

To learn more, visit:
Republican Party Website

A Final Note or Two

1) Please remember that the Democratic and Republican Parties have nothing to do with a democracy or a republic (forms of government). When I say I want a republican form of government, I'm talking about a republic (with a lowercase "r"), not the Republican Party (with an uppercase "R").

2) And please, please, PLEASE remember: don't just pick the Democratic or Republican party because you think they're the only ones that can win. "Third parties" can win. They HAVE won in many elections. If you join a party you truly support and vote for a candidate you truly respect, then there's no such thing as a wasted vote. But if you just vote for the lesser of two evils and win, you're still stuck with evil.