Americans Want Third Party After Shutdown

A recent Gallup poll revealed that 60% of Americans believe a third major political party is necessary, with only 26% saying that the current two are adequate. This survey was conducted during the recent government shutdown and was an attempt to gauge the effect the shutdown was having on public opinion of congress. I think it also reflects an implicit understanding on the part of the American people of the importance of having a correct threshold for action.

In the case of the government shutdown, we're actually talking about a threshold for inaction. As we discussed in class recently, the greater the perceived importance of an issue the higher we'll think the threshold for action should be. In the case of the shutdown, the action in question was allowing the government to be shutdown which only required a simple majority to fail to vote "yes" on a spending bill. The Republican controlled house refused to vote for liberal bills, and the Democrat controlled senate refused to pass conservative ones. If a third prominent political party emerged that shared some beliefs of both democrats and republicans, then it would be easier to gain the majority needed to pass measures in the house and senate. While not explicitly raising the threshold for inaction, it effectively makes it harder to shutdown the government. I think that the shutdown, seen by many as the epitome of incompetence, has caused many Americans to reevaluate the importance of the decision of whether or not to shutdown the government, and to conclude that the threshold should be higher.