Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-10975360-20131014124545/@comment-10975360-20131102165848

well Teddy Roosevelt and LaFollette's progressive party was a proper political party, it wasnt a single issue campaign. Strom Thurmond and Wallace's bids were single issue (segregation), but Henry Wallace and the progressives in 1948 were essentially the left wing of the democratic party. John Anderson wasnt a single issue campaigner, in fact i dont think anyone knows exactly what issues he did stand for - just a more moderate alternative to reagan for people who didnt like carter. Ross Pertot wasnt a single issue campaigner, he did have a well funded and quite detailed (in parts) platform.

Prehaps third parties just break up political coalitions, The New Deal coalition that rallied behind Roosevelt, divided over Truman, flocked to Ike, divided over Kennedy and nixon and then ran right away from goldwater to Johnson then finally broke up in '68. The Nixon democrats who divided between him and humphrey, then flocked to him in '72, went back to carter in '76 then became reagan democrats in the '80s.