Nope, Nader is not a good thing…
Dave’s wrong. He’s smart, but he’s entirely wrong in this entry. It’s too bad, because he’s often quite perceptive and pithy in his thoughts on politics
We live in a two-party system, which is not just an archival feature of the power of the two parties. Because it’s a winner-take-all (as opposed to PR), federal, separated executive-legislative system, third parties face massive structural impediments to being “viable.” If you want third parties with any power or influence, you need a parliamentary system, at the very least. Which ain’t gonna happen in this country anytime soon.
I’ve written about this before, and it might help to review my entry on the median voter theorem.
Also, Tyler wrote about this a couple of days ago and continues to write about it now. Tyler has a good intuitive understandings of the structural institutions of our political system.
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