Tina Brown should get the author of The Republican War Against Science to write on this site. This book illuminates how Gingrich perverted the path of science in this country. There should be an articulate voice that deconstructs his Contract For America. Ignorant Americans will not thrive.

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I'll believe it when I see it. The real reason you don't see viable third parties in this country is that the platforms of the two parties are so amorphous, they can expand to encompass just about any ideology, and they can (and do) change over time. It wasn't that long ago that the Republican Party was the party of businessmen and the East Coast elite, and the Democratic Party was the party of rural populism.

But a more important point is that Americans have very short memories, and they will tend to believe what party leaders say, even if their past actions don't support the truth of those statements. The Republican Party will reassert itself in 2010 as the anti-government, anti-deficit party, and the activist base will line up behind the Rs because they'd rather control the House than support a well-defined opposition party; and the Rs will say whatever they have to say to get elected; and the centrists who are upset with the Democrats in Congress will vote Republican, because they will have already forgotten that the Republicans have a miserable (and hypocritical) record when it comes to government spending.

Newt seems to have some kind of hormone condition. He's more womanish all the time, the voice, the feminize facial features, etc.

Gringrich is both on to and up to something. Could the agenda be a Catholic church based political party which will include calling home all the evangelical Catholics?
My Catholic mentor who is well past 70 has a 20' foot wall covered with pic's of himself and all the GOP superstars is set to leave the GOP should they not shed the meddling in personal issues. Yes he's influenced me but so have all the murders by assault rifle this past week. Everyday there are more reasons to leave the GOP.
It is doubtful that a new party will form - their are deep reasons for party choice. Sure the erractic fringes will have their tantrums but that isn't the sane middle.
The next wave of Independent party growth will be the real tea party. If Obama can't fix it, the 24% black vote most likely will be right there too. This hard truth should really make the snake charmer politician quake in their boots.

I think the main point is that people out here in flyoverland feel abandoned by both parties. The extreme left will always feel left out it is because it is such a small fringe. It is simply irrelevant and only used by Democrats to get elected and then thrown back. The real opportunity is in the middle. I was listening to some steelworkers this morning who are protesting the use of Indian steel in a US/Canada pipeline that is being built right past a shuttered American steel plant. They blame unfair trade which is usually ascribed to Repbulicans, but they also mentioned the cap and tax proposals they thought would end steel production in America altogether. Unlike previous "victim classes" cultivated by Democrats, blue collar workers won't buy it. They don't want welfare and the lies of being promised imaginary "green jobs" they want real jobs and they want them now. They know in the current environment, "green jobs" making windmills can go to China just as easily as steel. This American backbone class is ripe and would step up to someone who will promise to end allowing politics to interfere with their ability to earn a living.

I agree with mblips, and disagree that Obama would have to fail. I think that the real issue is that the Republican Party is so fractured that it wouldn't take much to win back the Obamacons and get some of the wavering Republicans to side with a splinter group. I disagree with Gingrich on what that would need to look like though - I don't think it can be illustrated on a left-right spectrum. It seems like there are the reactionary/obstructionist Limbaughs, represented by McConnell, and then people like Eric Cantor, who really are trying to take the party in a new, more viable direction. Even if Cantor is a revisionist and probably only paying lip service, he talks about oversight, taxing the AIG bonuses, and generally wanting to use taxpayers dollars well without falling into the tired "tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts" line (which it sounds like Gingrich is falling into).

Obama sold out his democratic base and Bush sold out the republican base (although not as badly as Obama) so what will the people do?
Nothing as usual.

The flaw in this argument is assuming that Newt would form a "centrist" third party option. In reality Gingrich would most likely form a more right-wing third party option appealling mainly to the Teabaggers (I love that term for them) excluding the few remaining moderate Republicans and further splintering the GOP. Newt is hardly Mr. Popularity among independents and moderate dems so I'm not sure how he is going to put together a winning (centrist) coalition for 2012 or beyond.

While I agree that there may be an appetite for a third option among the independents and party moderates I would be surprised if Gingrich had it in him to be their standard bearer. More likely he becomes the right's Ralph Nader (only not so frumpy-looking).

it's called power honey they all want it will do any thing for it
the republican can't belive they lost it will say or do what it takes to get it back their so called values is just another word
for give it too me

As a 25 yr old male, I've voted democratic since the day I turned 18, despite the fact that my value structure is almost word for word, the original Republican platform (low taxes, small government, personal freedoms). The reason I don't vote Republican is because they're bankrupt.

They've abandoned personal freedom values to curry the right wing "oppress everyone" religious voters.

They've abandoned small government in all but words.

They still don't raise taxes, but they spend like every day is their last and we have to pay for that somehow. We'll either pay for it in taxes or lower quality of life in some other way.

I can't trust the Republican party to follow through on their promises, and the promises I can trust that they'll keep (exalting evangelical christianity to an elevated status) I don't want them to keep.

Democrats, on the other hand are also very corrupt, but after Republican rule I've come to see raising taxes not as burdensome but as responsible fiscal policy in dealing with the decisions made in the past. Tack that on to the social freedoms they campaign for and in my eyes you've got a winner (sorry as they may be).

In short, these days when a republican says a democrat is going to raise taxes, I know that's probably because it's the responsible thing to do in the face of irresponsible republican spending.

flyoverland, I like your term "the American backbone class" and I think that you have a good point that a third party could peel away people by being loyal to workers - I think both Democrats and Republicans fall into the trap of trying to please everyone by appeasing business by not ensuring workers' rights and their ability to earn a living (only working full-time - not that they don't work hard, but the wages businesses pay are often too low), and trying to keep people afloat via welfare. Given the solutions history has offered us thus far, I think that workers have to come together and demand better wages (otherwise known as forming a union- union workers earn 30% more than their non-union counterparts), which is difficult these days.
One crucial piece of the solution currently being discussed is the Employee Free Choice Act would make it easier for workers to form unions, and therefore get real, well-paying jobs, by 1) strengthening penalties for employers who violate labor law, 2) giving the choice of how (to decide whether) to unionize, and legally recognizing a process which is statistically significantly less intimidating, and 3) ensuring that once they unionize, they can get a first contract. For more info, see http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/publications/general/undermining-the-ri ght-to-organize-employer-behavior-during-union-representation-campaigns.htm l

"The extreme left will always feel left out it is because it is such a small fringe. It is simply irrelevant and only used by Democrats to get elected..."

Blah blah blah, but isn't it amazing that we are still here, despite a massive propaganda war led by big business via CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FAUX ad nauseum? In truth it was the progressive, activist movement that has re-energized the Democratic base and resulted in the presidency of Barrack Obama.

I wouldn't call that irrelevant, but the brainwashed rightwing nut jobs who think (1) Obama is a Muslim, (2) Obama is a foreigner, (3) spending during recessionary times is BAD, and (4) Jesus should become King of America -- these people ARE IRRELEVANT not to mention, not very bright.

Like Goldstone wrote centuries ago, "every man is born a whig or a tory."

Interesting, flyoverland. This may be the time when all slogans are tested. In other words, everything's on the table from right and left.

flyoverland

Both extremes of the political spectrum are irrelevant. That shows your own bias.

Green jobs are extremely important. Right now, our energy comes from the countries that wish our destruction. We are funding the same people which wish our demise. How smart is that? I'd rather send our billions to the heartland then to a dictator or despot. (I'd rather see palaces built in Iowa then in Saudi Arabia.)

Certain jobs are not going to come back. We have to adapt. We have to develop new skill sets. I may wish to have the body I had at 21, but no matter what I do... I'll never be 21 again. (And that's ok) To hang onto what is past is foolish.

I think a 3rd party of independents could form. There are more independents then there are registered Republicans or Democrats. But what has kept this country paralyzed is our inability to compromise. Issues which are really secondary... halt the political process. They often cut a clean line right down the middle, making a centrist party very difficult to form.

Oh stop it, Newt Gingrich is the GOP

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This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.

The fact that you think that a party focused on small government, limiting spending, individual responsibility, low taxes, national defense, etc would be "far right" shows how 'effing crazy things really are these days.

Such a thing would be pretty middle of the road, and right in line with the wishes of this nation's founders.

Honestly far left and far right becomes indistinguishable at some point, except perhaps that one group focuses first on controlling thoughts and the other on controlling your actions, but in both cases you lose your freedom to act in your own self interest.

The dems has hit that point, the GOP is right behind them.

Honestly BOTH of the parties are ripe for failure at this point, though it may take a bit longer than 2012 before the masses fully embrace this and move on.

I'm not intending to insult them as "sheeple" or anything like that, it is DAMN hard to go into that voting booth and choose to throw your vote away to a "hopeless" cause, which is hopeless not because it isn't the preferred choice, but rather all of the would be voters, yourself included, fear that no one else is going to risk "the other guy winning" because you lot thew your votes away on a "hopeful misadventure".

As such this provides a decade or so of extra time for the existing 2 parties to save themselves by taking on the values of the people, rather than continuing to force their wacky ideas on the people but either way, eventually the people will get what they want.

I think many of us would like more options to choose from because neither party has been much help to Americans, but a far right party (and far left party) would probably just scare people away and at most take votes away from the people in first and second place, like Ross Perot did. This whole thing with Newt, Hannity, Beck, Bachman, Limbaugh, the Teabaggers, etc. is just a case of 10% of the people making 90% of the noise and convincing themselves that they're a bigger deal than they actually are.

Yes, let's bash the rubes in flyoverland. The College of the Ozarks is a very interesting place. Instead of debt, every student works to fund tuition. I doubt if there's a chapter of the communist party like at your school, but the kids graduate without any debt.

I have never pretended that I do not have a bias against the lunatic left. I think they are destructive and dangerous.

The promise of "green jobs" is a ruse, pure and simple. Most do not even exist and I have yet to see any that will not be exported to cheaper labor forces abroad. Why do you think these jobs will be any different than any of the others we have lost? Blue collar America isn't buying it.

I am in my late 50's. I worry about the kids with whom I went to high school back when less than half went to college. These kids went to work in the mills, refineries and factories and live great middle class lives. Today, who is going to hire them? Today, they are living on savings and maybe a wife who works in a service job. This is a time bomb waiting to go off. These people want to work. They do not have the patience to wait for some liberal dream that will ultimately drive our standard of living down by send jobs off-shore. Free trade steals our jobs. Cap and tax will steal even more. The third party that stands up and says "we are for Americans first" has a chance to steal an election and they wouldn't even have to discuss abortion, healthcare or the other polarizing issues that have created this opportunity. I don't think Newt is the guy who will pull it off. I keep waiting for that voice to emerge from the wilderness, maybe even from here in flyoverland.

My favorite line "small-government, limited-spending tradition, in describling the Republican party. The Confederate party has NEVER practiced fiscal restraint or shrinking the Gov, NEVER.
And please don't try to bring up Reagan. He raised taxes and grew the Gov. http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/26/obama-budget-reagan-clinton-bush-opinions- columnists_higher_taxes.html

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The last serious third party run was in 2000, when Ralph Nader succeeded in getting enough votes to deny the presidency to Al Gore.

Hey...maybe third parties aren't so bad!

I (mostly) agree with hungryhungryhorus. I agree with most of the theoretical Republican party principles but the actual party is unrecognizable from them. The only place where I disagree is the implication that this is recent. In practice the party has never really remained true to its stated values, though its complete take-over by the fringe far right has been more recent. It's too bad -- I wish there were a viable national party that really did believe in small government, low spending and personal freedom.