entation for all people. By separating themselves from the voters, politicians are only creating a stronger case for third parties and their candidates.How voters choose who to vote for depends on the candidates and the unique situations that exist during the year of the election. Voter loyalty is only as strong as the situation. If voters think that the parties are failing them, there is a high degree of probability that a third party candidate will emerge and voters will support them. There were vital issues during the election year of 1992. The country was in an economic downturn and the national debt was at an all time high. The amount of votes cast for the third party candidate (H. Ross Perot) was almost 19 percent. These kinds of situations are not geared toward doctrine or ideology. Instead, they tend to be organized around a dissenting movement or around a powerful leader. This sort of third party situation is best exemplified by the most successful third party presidential campaign of the last century. It was Theodore Roosevelt, ex-president who ran as the candidate for the “Bull Moose” Progressive Party. Four years after he left the White House he believed that he was cheated out of the Republican nomination. He united reformers and Republicans to a second place finish with over 27 percent of the popular vote. However, four years later Roosevelt, for his own political reasons, chose to endorse Charles Evans Hughes, the 1916 GOP nominee. Without the dynamic presence of Theodore Roosevelt, the Bull Moose effort died. Most look at politics as left side or right side of the issues. This is not the same point of view of the third party candidates. The third party candidates that have been successful usually talk about trying to purify the system in some way. They talk about the system as hopelessly corrupt. They promote that you need to clean it up one way or another. It is no coincidence that H. Ross Perot during th...
