Much talk has been lavished lately on the possibilities of a third party, that quadrennial chimera of political junkies and pundits. We will soon see the unsavory spectacle of Ross Perot and Richard Lamm duking it out for the sponsorship of the Reform Party (lavishly funded by Perot himself -- I wonder who will get the nomination?). Ralph Nader is running a somewhat moribund campaign under the pennant of the Green Party in California, and there are the usual suspects, such as the Libertarians, bringing up the third-party rear.
Yet there exists an enormous third party already in circulation that no one, in any direct fashion, has sought to organize and give voice to: the 50% of eligible people who do not vote. In a spirit of internationalism, let's call them the "Nyet Party," the ones who by the default of their absence have done more to shape the political direction of this country than the reigning factions.
How have they done this? By not engaging in an affirmative action, and by keeping mum about their desires, they have allowed politicians to claim they represent the nation when in fact they don't. Consider the math. In 1992, President Clinton received a plurality of votes: 43%. But that 43% came out of a pool of roughly 50% of the registered voters, so in essence the leader of the country was chosen by less than 25% of all registered voters. And this quartile hardly represents the full spectrum of Americans, made up as it is by the more affluent, more suburban, more educated voters.
This kind of math had even more dire consequences in the 1994 elections. The Republicans, based a handful of slim majorities in a handful of districts in an election in which most of the voters stayed home, claimed they had a mandate to tear apart 60 years of social and economic legislation. They have since repented, to some degree, but two years of divisive and loathsome politics have been the legacy of the Nyet Party's decision to abstain from local and national politics.
The Nyet Party has also had more subtly corrosive effects on the democratic polity. Their constant abdication makes the United States the poor cousin of other democracies, where voting rates are consistently higher. It feeds a cynical attitude that the only proper position for a citizen is supine and the only proper role is subordinate. It also feeds an amnesia that makes the Nyet Party members unable to remember that they are the source of the sovereign power of the United States government. Their choice not to vote, in essence, debases them as individuals and guarantees that the very powers they dislike so much will inevitably govern their lives for ends not of their choosing.
Who makes up the Nyet Party? Part of it is the estimated 65 million low-income people who have not registered to vote, the people the "motor voter" bill was supposed to bring in to the fold. Part of it is the 18-24 year old crowd, the ones "Rock the Vote" is supposed to inspire. Then there is a miscellany of malcontents, couch potatoes, anarchists, and just plain folks who for one reason or another never got themselves down to city hall to register.
What would happen if the Nyet Party decided to fold its tents and exercise its franchise? We might actually have a chance to experience what a real democracy looks and feels like, experience the energy that comes from a citizenry involved in its own governance. In many ways, American citizens have no idea what it means to live and act democratically. Most of their lives are spent in the pay of hierarchical organizations that discourage creativity and dissent. They're commanded by companies with advertising budgets larger than some sovereign states to dive into a steady commercial stream and never come up for air. Political organizations have metamorphosed into cash-grubbing machines that have jettisoned volunteers and face-to-face political organizing. They've been indoctrinated in the creed of individualism and taught to mistrust any communal approaches to solving problems. For all our 200 years of democratic rule, democracy in American has really yet to be tried. And the Nyet Party is a perfect example of how far we have to go.
The solution? I don't know what the solution is. I don't know what will galvanize softly pessimistic people into believing that, in concert, they really do have the power to change the course of mighty streams and powerful winds. I only know that much of the survival of our democratic experiment depends upon an energized and informed citizenry who will never forget that everyone who governs in our name must not take that name in vain. Short of that, we should prepare for more of the same, which has been nasty, brutish, and, unfortunately, not at all short.
(July 1996)