Third party politics has long altered the American political landscape. Some of those included, along with periods of most activity:
Anti-Masonic Party (1820s and 1830s)
Liberty Party (1840s)
Free-Soil Party (1840s and 1850s)
Know-Nothing/Nativist Party (1840s-1860)
Greenback Party (1870s)
Prohibition Party (1880s-1890s)
People’s Party (1890s-1900s)
Socialist Party (1900s-19-teens)
Progressive Party (three separate movements: 19-teens, 1920s, 1940s)
Dixiecrats (1948)
For details on each, see this handy Encyclopedia Britannica site. Will the Tea Party change party politics in America? Will it be a factor in the coming years?
Related links: "Third parties leave a mark: A timeline of third party showings," Christian Science Monitor, 28 October 2010.
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A related question might be, how did the major parties react to third party challenges? What did the Democrats say, through the mainstream media they controlled, as they were negotiating with, then absorbing the Populist "challenge?"
Green parties generally don't take any corporate money, so the Tea Party clearly has an opportunity they don't. Of course, the idea that Greens and others to the left are "naturally" Democrats is probably a mistake. Lots of pundits last night claimed that the electorate is "getting older and more conservative," or that Dems are moving toward the middle as Repubs lurch right. Isn't that just spin, to cover the fact that young people who hoped for and BELIEVED IN Obama's message of change decided yesterday that they won't get fooled again?
I didn't bother going to the polls.
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