Given that our current election cycle has seemingly been a long list of things going from bad to worse set to a playlist of the entirety of the US electorate banging their head on the nearest wall, we might be facing the creation of new political systems after this election. Third-parties are nothing new to American politics; our main two parties now were third parties within the last 175 years. We’ve had 6 major political parties since electing George Washington, the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and Whig parties, and of course the other two everyone loves.

Currently, there’s three main third parties in the US, the Libertarian, the Green, and the Constitutionalist Parties. I’ll include the URL’s for each party website at the end of this article, but essentially party ideologies break down like this:

- The Libertarian Party espouses classically liberal ideas such as the diminished role of the federal government in individual lives by eliminating or reigning in certain federal departments. They also support the idea of reducing the government’s role in an individual’s life in regards to marriage, abortion, drugs, and other issues.

- The Green Party stands for environmentalism, social justice, and nonviolence, all self-described as being “eco-socialist”. They support federal funding of green energy technology, ending support for the oil, coal, and gas companies and agri-business industries. At the same time, they want to expand the rights of women, the LGBTQ community, and POC individuals.

- The Constitutionalist Party supports the idea that the United States is a Christian nation that should be ruled through a direct interpretation of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Bible. Similar to the Libertarians in some issues, they stand against Social Security and the welfare state, and wish to end America’s role in different international organizations such as the UN, NATO, NAFTA, and more. They also oppose illegal immigration and would eventually phase out immigration to the US permanently except in cases of “extreme necessity”.

While these are not the full positions and platforms of these parties, I leave it to you to read further into them.

So that’s great! If you don’t like the Democrats or the Republicans in the election, you have different options. But suppose you don’t affiliate with the two main parties, and the next 3 biggest parties aren’t your thing, what then? There’s an obvious answer to that, make your own political party. I’m serious. Let’s say you want to make a brand new political party, let’s call it the something totally innocuous like the Wig Party (Make Toupees Great Again). I’ll use the rules in California as an example for the ways you can make this party happen since that’s the state that would get you the largest number of electoral votes when you run for president on the Wig ticket. Individual state rules for how to register a political party can typically found on your state’s Secretary of State’s website.

As of 2014, California has two ways you can make a political party, the Voter Registration Method and the Petition Method. To quote the CA Secretary of State’s website, the VRM requires that, “…To qualify a new political party by voter registration requires that voters equal in number to at least 0.33 percent of the total number of voters registered on the 154th day before the primary election or the 123rd day before the presidential general election complete an affidavit of registration, disclosing a preference by writing in the name of the political body intending to qualify as a political party.” It goes on to put that in plain English, saying that 154 days before the 2018 primary election is January 2, 2018, and 123 days before the general election that same year is July 6, 2018. Currently, this method would require the nucleus of the Wig Party to hold a State Party Convention, elect temporary officers, and notify the CA Secretary of State that it intends to qualify as a political party. From there, a party officer can request voter registration cards in an attempt to reach 70,000 members by January 2, 2018. From here, the Wigs can run candidates for statewide, county, and local elections as long as they maintain their membership, or have a statewide candidate receive 2% of total votes cast.

This is the easiest way to create a political party in California; the Petition Method calls for over 750,000 signatures on petitions printed at your own expense and certified by an attorney specializing in election law to make sure they would be legally valid.

Okay, say the Wigs qualify for the 2018 primary and general elections. What offices do you field candidates for and how do you raise money? An obvious tip would be like creating a building, lay a foundation and start building from the bottom. Have candidates run for city councils and school boards, and maybe a few county seats. Raise money the good ol’ fashioned way by canvassing local districts, creating phone banks and call lists, send out flyers and emails to residents most likely to support your Wigs. Advertise meet the candidate events as a “new and growing political party rising to oppose the two-party system,” make it sound like a movement to replace stagnation in our political system. Soon enough, 2018 rolls around and you win seats on several city councils, mayoral races, and some county seats. Congratulations, not bad for your first election cycle, you beat the Constitutionalists.

Now you’re ready to try for the big leagues (bigly’s for some). After effective governing practices in your two years in office, you decide to run candidates for the State Legislature in 2020 along with expanding your presence on the local level. Between elections, you should be boosting your fundraising capacities by reaching out to more donors, corporate or grassroots depending on your style, and expanding your volunteer base. At this point, you could reach out to other states and find which states would be conducive to your party’s platform and try branching out to make other affiliate parties; this is critical for your later presidential bid.

Assuming everything goes flawlessly, you pick up State Representative and Senator seats while at the same time broadening your local support to the point where you’re a major presence in certain counties in the state. Here come the elections of 2022, what do you do? Why run a candidate for major statewide offices of course!˗try Supreme Court Clerk, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State even, and different judicial positions. At this point, you should be getting national or at least state media coverage for being this thriving new political party that’s been increasing out of nowhere and is now challenging the two major political parties in several states. Use this attention to contrast your candidates to the Democrats and Republicans, and to highlight issues where your position is superior to either two party’s positions. Ramp up fundraising, canvassing, phone banking, TV ad buyouts, radio ads, and billboards over California and any other state the Wigs have received significant backing. November 8, 2022 comes and behold! Your efforts have paid off and you’ve yet again gained more seats in several state legislatures, picked up various county seats and the Wigs are making toupees great again in mayors’ offices across the country. You beat the Greens and you’re edging past the Libertarians, nice one.

Now your eyes are on 2024, and on federal offices. There’s some states where you can try for a governorship or higher state offices, go ahead and try those as well. But imagine electing the first US Representative from a major 3^rd party since Bernie Sanders left the House for the Senate in 2007, the media attention alone should give you a toehold in some new states that hadn’t considered you before. By now, you could be having your annual national convention televised nationally, your candidates and elected officers can be hitting up the morning show circuit and even guest starring on late-night shows. I’d personally love to be on the Daily Show with Jessica Williams in 2023. You sit in the California Wig Party offices in Sacramento, watching election returns Election Day 2024, and you hit the balloon drop when the results come in and you’ve picked up 3 Representatives, a Governor’s seat, a few more state officials, and back to back media coverage until January 20, 2025 for being the first 3^rd party to elect candidates to Washington D.C. for the first time since the New York Conservative Party in 1971.

Although not enough to form a very influential caucus, your representatives can highlight your party platform on the national stage, regularly be on the nightly news commenting on Congress’ actions and Presidential decisions. This keeps the money coming in, volunteers on the clock, interns in D.C., and voters on your side. You should always be looking for ways to increase fundraising and making your party visible; always have candidates be more accessible to the public than your rivals, and always see how the Wigs can spread on a national level now.

It’s your turn now, you want to run to be the Wig Party’s nominee for the office of Governor of California in the 2026 election. This sets you up for electoral votes in the years to come along with increasing your party’s power in the country. Go all in, rigorous travel schedules take you up and down the state holding rallies in the cities that popularized your party 8 years ago. This schedule makes it hard for you to be in charge of the Party and run for office, so you hand the reigns over to one of your longtime Wig allies who will keep the party on focus and on message. The results come flashing in but damn, you only made second place, losing by a handful of percentage points. But that’s fine, you gained a few more House seats and a Senator, along with keeping your governor in office and potentially winning one or two more, and you’ve flipped 3 state houses! You’ve guided the Wigs to become the most powerful 3^rd party since the Progressive Party 100 years ago, and you’re beginning to formulate the beginnings of a Wig Presidential run in 6 years.

5 years go by, and the Wig Party of the United States has picked up momentum. You control a dozen state houses with a significant presence in 10 more, 4 Governors and their cabinets and state officers, and about 20 US Representatives and 5 Senators. I’m honestly surprised, a lot of parties don’t get this far. Your Wigs are a force to be reckoned with, you took several states away from the Democrats and Republicans where about half a dozen other parties have tried and failed for the last 100 or so years. The Wig have tens of millions of registered voters, have regular donors and volunteers, and have spread effective governing and policy around the nation. It’s 2031, and you make a dramatic announcement. After regaining your position as Chair of the Wig Party after your governor’s race, you announce that your party is going to run its first Presidential bid! One of your first governors to be elected asks you to be the Vice Presidential nominee on their ticket, which you gladly accept, resigning your position again as head of the party to hit the campaign trail.

Election Night 2032. The ballroom explodes into a fervor as the final results come in and the polls are closed everywhere across the country; no one reached the 270 electoral votes necessary to win (this is assuming that number doesn’t change in the next 16 years). Now here’s what the Constitution says about this scenario, which may be likely in this election season thanks to Evan McMullin. The candidates for President go to the House of Representatives and the VP candidates of the top 3 vote earning parties go to the Senate. The House votes on who becomes the next President while the Senate votes on VP, if the House doesn’t have a vote by January 20, the VP elected by the Senate becomes Acting President until the House votes. This has happened only once or twice in our country’s history, with the President being chosen well before Inauguration Day.

In this scenario, we’ll say a compromise was struck somewhere. The Democrats or Republicans get the support of the Wigs for the Presidency, while giving their support to the Wigs for Vice President. America goes absolutely nuts. The last 3^rd party to occupy part of the White House was Abraham Lincoln soon after the Republicans were founded. For the first time in nearly 200 years, a new party has risen through the ranks to break the two party system and introduce a mainstream 3^rd option for Americans.

Congratulations, I look forward to seeing you at the podium on Inauguration Day.

Libertarian Party Website: https://www.lp.org/

Green Party Website: http://www.gp.org/

Constitution Party US Website: http://www.constitutionparty.com/