Many political "third parties" in the U.S. buck establishment trends by su-
pporting innovative or unique ideas. In many cases, their ideas end up being
co-opted by the major parties. Thanks to the Socialist Party of the early 20th
century, we now have Social Security and the eight hour workday, and The
Libertarian Party has been very influential on the Republican Party of the last
couple of decades. The Constitution Party has attracted some attention in con-
servative circles, while the Green Party played a visible role in the disputed
2000 Presidential election, when their candidate Ralph Nader received enough
votes to allegedly hurt Democratic candidate Al Gore. But there are also many
third parties that are not only inconsequential, but just, well...really weird. Be-
low we take a glance at five of the most offbeat ones:
Prohibition Party
This anti-alcohol party is actually the oldest third party still (barely) active in
the U.S., having been founded in 1869. In the 1910s, they actually managed
to get some people elected to Congress and were able to capture the Gover-
norship of Florida...[CONTINUE READING]
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