Influence of Third Party Candidates on the Outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election - Essay Example

History and Political Science Influence of Third Party Candi s on the Outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election There are speculations concerning the U.S.A Presidential Elections in relation to the question whether, the third party candidate garnered sufficient strength of becoming a substantial contender. In fact, the third party was likely to get on a ticket to winning, since numerous citizens were seeking a change in ways that the government is run; thus the third party was becoming more attractive to the current "two party" system (Abramowitz, 594). Moreover, the current stagnant political atmosphere was objecting progress due to two leading parties, which spend time bickering and seeking ways to oppose each other within their own party as evidenced in the primary campaigns. Therefore, the "two party" system has differences with substantial consequences on Precedential elections. Moreover, the control maintained by the Republicans and Democrats has established an environment, where voters have little choices to select. Nevertheless, the paper will discuss the influence of third party candidate on the outcome of 2008 presidential elections. There has been frustrations expressed Americans in relations to the US political systems, which is protecting two main parties and eliminating the chance at the third way. Therefore, if 2008 presidential race were severely disrupted by the third party candidate, then Barrack Obama would not have won the presidential elections (Scotto, Clarke, Kornberg, Reifler, Sanders, Stewart and Whiteley, 545). On the other hand, there were campaigns of Cecilia Garza, which was an independent from Texas; Bob Barr, who was a Libertarian impeaching former president Bill Clinton, Ruth Bryant, who is a Christian minister from Nevada, Steven Hoefflin, who was a celebrity plastic surgeon humanitarian and inventor, and Ralph Nader were third party candidates in the 2008 presidential elections. However, in 2008, there were a lot of media coverage of Democrats and Republicans, thus making it difficult to remember alternative candidate from third party exists. Therefore, the third parties gave the voters a chance to think beyond the boundaries imposed by the media and the "two-party" system. Therefore, the third party had an influence of the race, since it made the content high competitive in a way that the candidate with the ability to change 800,000 voters was not able to determine the outcome of the election. Nevertheless, there were challenges related to running as a presidential candidate as a third party candidate, since there is no support by the political system or the mainstream media. A candidate like Dr. Hoefflin with brilliant ideas for altering politics and rectifying embedded problems in the U.S was not given a chance by media (Clem, Dodson and Nikole, 518). The media refused to pay attention at Dr. Hoefflin’s ideas concerning the changes on U.S politics, thus the frustrated voices of Americans who were supporting the third party made the media pay attention to their issues through the internet. However, the American economy was deteriorating; the dollar was losing value against other main currencies, while China’s shadow is weakening the leadership in U.S, in the world. Approvals made by President Bush are considered the worst in the history, since two thirds of the American populations believed that the Iraq war was a mistake. Therefore, the third party candidates were focused on changing the course, but the Americans and media could not pay attention to their ideas. The political situation has always been dominated by the Republicans and Democrats; thus, they have left diminutive room for change, but the third party offered norms, whereby each party was able to choose against opposition. It also facilitated disillusions that focused on independent learning for Americans who were fed up with the "two party" systems. In this way, the Republicans and Democrats seemed not to be taking their stand in their issues; instead, they made declarations in aligning the party stance. There were situations where the candidates would disagree with their standpoint, while their positions would coincide with their party. Governing parties had progressed in a slow mechanism that entailed a rare creativity for generating solutions, whereby the candidates who were presenting themselves with no difference. Moreover, the parties were enlightening their dormant state, since they were not showing much inventiveness in establishing remedies for various problems. On the other hand, the third parties did not have a strong standpoint since they had no support for implementing their ideas. Therefore, the small amount of illuminated light, which was left by two-party system, has been dimming, and people were taking notice. In this case, the independent precedential candidates had no obligations to the Republicans and Democratic parties stimulated the change that influenced the 2008 precedential outcome. By 2008, Americans has become unpleased by the politics due to continued political squabbles, thus making them seeking for other presidential options or fail to vote altogether. In this case, the third party brought an opportunity for garnering a voting base, which influenced the outcomes of the presidential elections in 2008 (Stanton, LaBar, Saini, Kuhn and Beehner, 774). In fact, the presidential candidate in third party gave an accurate reflection of the beliefs of the average Americans, since numerous citizens were not affiliates of liberals or conservative perceptions, while others had a combination of these issues. Therefore, the third party was not a slave to the party platform; hence, they could stand for their beliefs. Disillusions caused by the third party established a probable way for opening up the voting arena, which was encompassing the third party feasible candidate. However, the third party presidential candidate was publicized; thus, they were considered as spoilers but the voters were not considering casting Independent ballot. Therefore, the citizens were willing to vote for the third candidate, since they were fed up with the conventional system and they were seeking a change. The growth of the internet facilitated campaigning, which offered a substantial opportunity, whereby there was a cheaper and effective way of conveying the message to voters. On the other hand, the Republicans and Democrats had dominated and produced mass campaign funding, while independents were innovating and raising funds through modern ways of campaigning in order to reach out to various constituents. Therefore, the increasing popularity of the independents facilitated the influence on the 2008 elections, since there diversion of votes due to the popularity. Nevertheless, the election of a third party candidate was not to occur overnight, and people came to realize that it was to take a while, since it has happened in the past. During the 2008 elections, citizens had not decided on whether to take the vote to the independent candidate, hence make him a third party president. Therefore, this had a substantial influence on the election's outcome, since the voting changed, whereby the Republicans had to make room for Democrats. The Democrats, Republicans and Independents, would have put their partisans matters aside and discuss pertinent issues with body of elected officials in order to foster bright future of elections. Americans are always willing to vote for change in the political systems; thus, this would have led to paving of a road for third party president election. In conclusion, the paper has focused on elaborating on the influence of the third party in the 2008 presidential elections. There are substantial ideas that have been identified such as the third party precedential candidates introducing the issue concerning change, which led to influence on the voters. The third party also had a different approach on campaigning, whereby they used internet to reach out to various constituents. Therefore, the third parties were considered as vote spoilers for the other parties, and this influenced the outcome of the presidential election in 2008. Work Cited Abramowitz Alan. Transformation and polarization: The 2008 presidential election and the new American electorate. Special Symposium: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Electoral Studies. 29(4):594-603. 2009 Clem Brooks, Dodson Kyle, Nikole Hotchkiss. National security issues and US presidential elections, 1992–2008. Social Science Research. 39(4):518-526. 2010 Scotto, Thomas, Clarke, Harold Kornberg, Allan, Reifler, Jason, Sanders, David, Stewart, Marianne and Whiteley, Paul. The dynamic political economy of support for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election campaign. Special Symposium: The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Electoral Studies. 29(4):545-556 Stanton Steven, LaBar, Kevin, Saini, Ekjyot, Kuhn, Cynthia and Beehner Jacinta. "Stressful politics: Voters’ cortisol responses to the outcome of the 2008 United States Presidential election". Psychoneuroendocrinology. 35(5):768-774. 2009 Read More