Greenspan: Nation Ripe for a Third Party Candidate

Alan Greenspan, political pundit:

Freed of the constraints of public office, Alan Greenspan has expanded from commenting on the economy to commenting on politics, by Greg Ip, WSJ Washington Wire (dynamic link): Speaking to a Wall Street gathering ..., the former Federal Reserve chairman decried the "polarization" of American politics and said the ground was ripe for a third party presidential candidate... A member of the audience asked Mr. Greenspan if he would endorse a candidate for president. Mr. Greenspan said he would not, "for now." But he went on to describe the two American parties now as controlled by their extreme wings, even though the voting public is far more centrist... He described the leadership of the parties as "bimodal," meaning clustered at the extreme ideological ends, whereas the voting public was "monomodal," meaning clustered near the middle. Such situations, he said, create an opening for a third-party candidate who appeals to the center. That, he said, could prompt the candidates of the other two parties to move back to the center, for fear of losing.

Comments

[ja]

This is funny. He's a "polarizer," Google Greenspan and tax cut if you have any doubt, or Greenspan and Social Security - plus he brought politics to the fed - but cannot see his own role.

He thinks he's a centrist. Maybe it's not funny.

[hirvi]

I simply can't resist this.

The US needs MANY new parties, and a completely new voting system - where one vote equals one vote, and none of this trashy electoral college thing.

Excuse me, I'll be quiet for a while now.

says...

You're excused. And no need to be quiet...

[Robert]

How backward and broken our system must appear in comparison to Hirvi-the-Finn and his multi-party, consensual, social democracy of the North !!

But America has a visceral dislike of critics. Be they Mencken, Vidal, Chomsky, Krugman, or even the reporter who asks a figure of authority a distinctly uncomfortable question, they leave a powerful distatse in the mouths of ordinary Americans. This dislike for critical introspection coupled with a strong sense of perceived determinstic purpose helps explain the reticence of Americans to critically examine and fix not just currrent policies, but especially the structural latticework of our political system.

It seems that, in recent history, aggregation of interests outside the two-party structure much better reflect what people are against than what they are for. Which raises the more important and requisite question that precedes the creation of a third, or multiple additional parties: "Do Americans even KNOW what they are for or have a vision of what they desire for they and their children, and whether these things are even economically possible or practical?

Now, a plutocracy of corporate and entrenched-interests, make any such introspection, evolution or change, ever-more-challenging and unlikely - something that will take incredible effort by enlightened (or disillusioned, or both) folk, to surmount.

[anne]

The problem with politics is politics, I understand. The problem with American Republican and Democratic party politics is extremists, I understand. Who are the extremists, please explain? Are the extremists those who took us from wonderful a budget surplus to a fierce deficit that is suddenly the bane of just those who took us to it? Are the extremists those who needlessly took us to war when Iraq was contained and no threat to us, and who even after the war was quickly won chose to stay and stay for reasons that are beyond my understanding but that evidently are accepted by a large majority since we have even already forgotten any ideas Colonel John Murtha might have had? Are the extremists every Republican Senator who voted against a filibuster of the nomination of Samuel Alito, or the single Republican Senator who then voted meaninglessly against confirmation? Huh?

[anne]

http://www.calvorn.com/gallery/photo.php?photo=3669&exhibition=24&u=272%7C16%7C...

Northern Saw-whet Owl
New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx, New York.

As for Finland, I am always thankful when I read of her cares :)

[calmo]

Monomodal, bimodal. Serious deterioration in the Greenspeak.
Imagine: the Democrats are no longer in disarray but have "clustered at the extreme ideological end" of some gonzomodality.
Imagine paying money to hear this. Or that he is not endorsing any Presidential candidate, yet. Imagine paying horrendous amounts to hear this.
It's a blunt ploy to incubate national bipolar disorder, people.

[groucho]

I see Greenie continues his "global" project. Of course he wants a centrist US policy. A policy to the left(US worker
biased, anti-globalization) or policy to the right(current PNAC, US will rule the world policy) is completely against the internationalist/bilderberger long term goals.

Even Haas at the CFR is balking at the whitehouse plans for the middle east. It's clear that the current white house, in the eyes of bilderbergers, cfr and trilateralists, is a rogue power that must be brought under control.....hence Greenie's talk of new 3rd party.
(try to get the US back on track to eventual US/Euro world govt)
Clearly, he would like to help influence the political "fallout" that's soon to happen from the coming Bernanke hyperinflation? /deflation? bust.

[Bruce Webb]

Anyone who thinks the Democratic Party is in any way shape or form dominated by its "extreme wing" is either delusional or a die-hard acolyte of Ayn Rand. The public face of the Democratic Party is not Jesse Jackson (thank God) or Russ Feingold (from my lips to God's ear) but Hillary Clinton who, despite the feverish night sweats of assorted wing-nuts, has not exactly proved herself either to the Progessive Social Justice Wing or the neo-New Deal Economic Justice Wing of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.

I like Reid, but at best he can be described as a Raging Populist, not a bad thing at all but not FDR either. I think I would like to see Pelosi unchained but she too is (quite literally) the child of establishment Democratic politics (her father was a major Democratic player, first as Congressman from 1939 and then as mayor of Baltimore from 47-59). To describe either as captives of the "extreme" reveals a world view far, far away from the reality I live in.

[Marvin McConoughey]

What I would like to see from any and all political parties and potential replacements is better long term proposals coupled with specifics rather than glowing but detail-poor rhetoric.

[Lord]

It will happen when the Republicans throw McCain out.

[Bruce Webb]

Marvin, try this for specific. One, acknowledge that Social Security is in fact actuarially sound. Two, start to move towards Single Payer by covering every American resident under the age of 18 with full medical care. Three, pay for that not only with the attendent administrative savings but with a restoration of marginal rates to pre-Bush I tax custs.

Unleash your inner FDR. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself". And oh yes: Darth Cheney.

[dryfly]

Reserve chairman decried the "polarization" of American politics and said the ground was ripe for a third party presidential candidate

He must be thinking of the Ayn Rand Party... call'em Randroids for short. AG - future 'chairman'...

[calmo]

Darth Cheney [Watch out he's loaded.]-kudos for that one Bruce.
Lord hits me again:
It will happen when the Republicans throw McCain out.
Is McCain even an item? The heir apparent? The part-time defender of decency and occasional voice against torture? Which Republicans are going to toss this little Georgie hugger out?