Progressives and the Third-Party Question

New York Times

4 days ago

To the Editor:
Re 'Viable Third Party in '28? Conditions Are Right, but Odds Are Still Long,' by Nate Cohn (The Upshot, June 15):
The opening for a third party is not where Mr. Cohn thinks it is.
It is not with his 'new neoliberals.' Most of the wealthy donors, professional politicians and party operatives who run the two major parties still promote the neoliberal policies that Mr. Cohn claims provide the recipe for a successful third party: 'deficit reduction, deregulation, free trade and high-skilled immigration.'
Mr. Cohn promotes the trendy 'abundance agenda' that is simply rebranding the old nostrum of growth, not redistribution that neoliberals have been running on since they began displacing New Deal liberals in the 1970s.
Mr. Cohn fantasizes that a third party could emerge from an 'establishment-friendly campaign' with 'the support of wealthy elites.' But disaffected voters are anti-establishment and disgusted at billionaires buying elections.
Polling consistently shows majority support for progressive reforms that the major parties won't support, including Medicare for all, a Green New Deal, free public child care and education through college, and taxing the rich to fund such reforms.
The opening is for a progressive third party.
Howie HawkinsSyracuse, N.Y.The writer was the Green Party candidate for president in 2020.
To the Editor:
Nate Cohn argues that conditions for a third party could be coming into place. As the founder of the kind of party he describes, I can tell you this: Third parties don't work.
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