I’ve made it a minor hobby to ridicule Peggy Noonan’s partisanship, but I find every reason to praise today’s column, in which she discusses America’s apparent readiness for a viable third political party. In an ideal world, we’d only need one libertarian party, but we don’t live in such a world. As such, spreading power among as many groups as possible seems to be the best alternative. A governing party without a majority in Congress would be wonderful, precisely for the reason Ms. Noonan states today:
Are there some dramatic differences? Yes. But both parties act as if they see them not as important questions (gay marriage, for instance) but as wedge issues. Which is, actually, abusive of people on both sides of the question. If it’s a serious issue, face it. Don’t play with it.
That paragraph isn’t perfect, but I like its conclusion. There are legitimate issues facing our nation. Rather than be mature, responsible citizens, we continue to elect the same hack politicians because they offer us prizes at the end of the tax rainbow. It’s misguided and destructive. I doubt that a viable third party (libertarian, please) would solve that, but I can’t find an overwhelming reason to believe it would be anything but an improvement.