Newt Gingrich and Third Party Politics in America and Europe

We are beginning to see the Republican hopefuls for the 2012 presidential race put a foot in the water.

Yesterday, it was Newt Gingrich’s turn. Gingrich is a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. He is recognized as the Republican most likely to develop ideas for a serious alternative to the Obama agenda.

He was also the Speaker who faced down Bill Clinton in 1995, in the last debt ceiling crisis in the United States. Gingrich won the stare-off but it led to a GOP loss in the next congressional elections in 1996, and Gingrich has been blamed for the defeat ever since.

Newt Gingrich is your man if you’re looking for someone to brainstorm and win over Americans with conservative ideas. But, I’m not sure he can win a presidential election. His negative baggage includes two divorces, three wives and a House ethics charge over book profits accounting practices. He was cleared of all charges.

We might note also that the last Gallop poll showed that 53% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats would like to see a third party in the presidential race in 2012. The Tea Party immediately comes to mind, but those polled were thinking not only Tea Party but also new ideas to save America.

This could mean that a third party candidate will enter the 2012 race. Third parties have never succeeded in the US, but this time it might be different. Why? Because neither the GOP nor the Democrats have been able to present any ideas at all, let alone those that might save America in its present economic and social crises.

Third parties in France, Great Britain, Germany and the Netherlands are forcing the leading parties to re-think their positions, mostly on the economy, taxation and immigration issues.

It is not unthinkable that the same might happen in 2012 in America.