Where Have You Gone Mr. Ross Perot? A Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You...

I remember the Dana Carvey impersonations the best. But I also remember my mother & sister talking about the possibility of voting for "Ross for Boss" in 1992. I thought they were mad. Now I know they were just frustrated.

The two-party system is really all that we know as Americans. Knowing that third parties are possible, we imagine that somewhere there is an apolitical hero who will rise up out of a movie script and save us from corruption and waffling. H. Ross Perot was the most unlikely presidential candidate. His hobbit-like looks and homespun charm were enough to make anyone take notice, but I think most of his votes came from the dangerous mix of drinking and voting. Still, his boring infomercials were almost enough to make a lasting movement. Almost. (See Dave Leip's Site under 1992 through 2004 to see the changes from Perot's 18.91% to the lack of a party listing over four elections)

Perot was not cut for politics. He dropped out of the race, then dropped back in, complaining of, "Republican dirty tricks." It cost him a great deal of credibility. The political party he started, primarily with emphasis on protection of American jobs and fiscal responsibility. Personally, I had a hard time understanding him. I preferred to interpret through Dana Carvey, so I guess I never really got the real scoop.

According to Famous Texans:

"In 1995, Perot announced the formation of the Independence Party (now called the Reform Party) and said it will attempt to qualify candidates in every state. The next year, Perot won the Reform Party nomination for president, beating former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm by a two to one margin. This time, instead of financing his campaign himself, he accepted contributions and matching government funds. But strange things continued to happen to his campaign. Lamm, seemingly upset by his party's nominating process, refused to endorse Perot. Then he was refused a spot in the presidential debates because debate sponsors decided his low poll numbers disqualified him as a serious candidate. President Clinton wanted him in the debates, Republican opponent Bob Dole did not. In the election, Perot won eight percent of the vote."

Perot did not run in 2000, but the fight within the party (as widely reported) created the picture that the movement was failing. Famous right-wing reactionary, Pat Buchanan, took the nomination, and the party has been licking its wounds ever since. Perot's Reform Party still exists, but without the power it should have kept with vision and leadership. The party was victim to hubris, infighting and Patrick Buchanan. Nothing good can survive that triple threat.

There is also a splinter group from the original party, the American Reform Party, which claims to avoid "social issues" in order to focus on "fiscal responsibility, taxation, deficit spending, campaign financing, ballot access, health care, illegal immigration, international trade, jobs and the economy, conservation and the environment, and a sensible foreign policy that does not foment hatred of America by the rest of the world."

The official Reform Party website, includes some of the following interesting points in its 2003 platform:

- We believe workers should be encouraged to organize and practice collective bargaining. We oppose the efforts to relocate American jobs offshore. We stand for the promotion of higher wage jobs.
- The United States government should be more proactive in opposing mergers of large corporations and in restructuring those that have achieved an excessively controlling position.
- Corporate Reform: Insure punishment and fines fit the crime. Give corporate criminals real jail time. Money collected through fines should be reimbursed to stockholders, retirement funds or 401(k) plans. Fines should be commensurate, not small percentage.
- Provide real pension protection for workers by limiting company stock in 401(k) plans. Give employees a voice on the pension board.
- A temporary Freeze on all immigration, except for spouses and minor children of US citizens until the these are assimilated, and a Constitutional Amendment that will not give automatic citizenship to children born on US soil to parents OTHER THAN legal citizens of the US.
- The Reform Party recognizes that ecology and the economy are inter-related, and therefore holds the following to be of great importance: Scientific management of privately held lands has proven more successful than agenda-driven, agency management of government lands.
- Accordingly, the Reform Party calls for greater private property rights, and demands that hard data replace politics as the basis of land management decision-making and land use regulations and laws.
- In the words of John Quincy Adams, "Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her [America's] heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."
2a) We respect the sovereignty of all nations, and reject the belief that the United States should use its military power to engage in nation-building.
2b) The United States should not be the policeman of the world.
2c) The United States should no longer support foreign despots who utilize torture, murder and genocide to control their people. Rather than supporting these regimes we should utilize pressure through international cooperation, including volunteer boycotts.

Additionally there is a call for a change to financial foreign aid, and a great deal of language calling for more protectionism and what seems to be greater isolationism, but there are also some Green and Libertarian ideas in the mix as well (read the whole page if you get the chance). Overall, the platform seems to be pretty disjointed.

The differences between the official party platform and the American Reform Party show how voter dissatisfaction and the views of registered independents cannot be summed up into a single challenge to the status quo. But is that why Perot's party did not keep it's strength? What is really missing that kept the Reform Party (and other third parties, for that matter) from being a lasting challenge to the big two?