Alternative Politics: Is a Third Party the Way Out?

Seventy years ago, American elites knew how to enforce the two-party system. “In 1924,” Robert and Helen Lynd reported in their classic study, Middletown, “It was considered such ‘bad business’ to vote for the third party [the Progressives, who ran Robert La Follette for president] that literally no one of the business group confessed publicly before or after the election to adherence to this ticket. ‘If we could discover the three people who disgraced our district by voting for La Follette,’ declared one business class woman vehemently, ‘we’d certainly make it hot for them!’

In this case, Middletown (real name— Muncie, Indiana) was typical of the nation. In 19...