Gridlock in Washington D.C. is nothing new. Many first term presidents have seen their party loose control of congress two years after they were elected to office. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are the two most discussed presidents that faced this situation. The system seems more broken than ever to me. Now many in government and at least one commentator are seeing the same conditions too.
This is the text from Meet the Press with commentator David Brooks on February 14, 2010
MR. GREGORY: Thirty, 30–David Brooks, 30 seconds, the outlook.
MR. BROOKS: Well, it’s going to be a good year for Republicans. I’m actually beginning to think, for the first time in my life, there’s a prospect for a third party at some point in the future. I just don’t see how we get out of the fiscal hole if Republicans are not willing to raise taxes, Democrats not willing to cut spending. I just don’t see how we get out of that, and that is the predicate. For the first time in my life I’ve thought maybe somebody could run a third party for president, not for Congress this year.
MR. GREGORY: Modern day Ross Perot.
MR. BROOKS: Hopefully a little saner, but, yeah.
George Stephanopoulos of ABC reported today that Senator Evan Bayh, after announcing his decision not to run for re-election, indicated to him he thought the nation may be ready for a third party candidate for president.
The Tea Party group is not yet an organized political party but that could change if Tea Party Nation leaders were to start organizing themselves in that direction. Sarah Palin would be their obvious candidate for president. Isn’t she too divisive?
Could “blue dog” Democrats and “moderate” Republicans come together as a new third party? There have been many political parties but after John Adams only Democrats, Whigs, and Republicans won the office. George Washington and John Adams were Federalists which was a party that stood for the creation of the United States as a free and separate nation. Every revolutionary was Federalist.
In Team of Rivals, author Doris Kearns Goodwin describes the Know Nothing Party (feared the immigration of immigrants from Germany) and the Whig Party (supported new industry and the encouragement of trade and infrastructure improvements).
Unfortunately the United States has not been a fertile ground for new political parties.
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