Broadly speaking, the difficulties with third parties often stem from the conspiratorial, cultic and irrational third rail memes typically contained in critiques of the status quo. The critique must ramp up resentful homie energy on the low road in order to contest the two party space on the high road where the ideology has concreased into power.
Typically twentieth century third way politics attempted to advance an organization of society that was neither Capitalist nor Communist. Hence the third way.
Germany was often the place from which such thinkers advanced third way politics.
“In Green Stormtroopers in the Streets of Berlin?- Confronting the eco-fascist tradition in the German experience,†Steve Chase, provides a deep geo-political context for assessing the evolution of the discourse and memes that give rise to Third Rail/Third Way movements.
Thus Chase:
“The various wings of the volkisch movement were united by their search for an authentically German "Third Way." People as seemingly disparate as authoritarian reactionaries, romantic anarchist communards, disgruntled peasants, and the spiritual followers of Rudolph Steiner were all focused on finding some middle path to national renewal that was neither capitalist nor communist. One can certainly hear an echo of this political orientation in the early slogan of the German Greens, "We are neither left nor right; we are in front."
The earlier search for a Third Way came to the foreground most strongly after World War I. In contrast to proletarian Marxism, the emerging hunger for a Third Way was grounded in nature mysticism, anti-modernism, and nationalism. In contrast to bourgeois conservatism, it was also anti-capitalist and critical of orthodox Christianity. German author Moller van den Bruck, considered by many as a "prophet" of the Third Way, called for "a German socialism" that embraced "a corporate concept of the state and economy that might have to be instituted through revolutionary means, but which, once established, must be bound by conservative principles." The youth movement was very taken with such ideas, and became increasingly enamored of direct actionâ€â€what they called the "idealism of deeds"â€â€as a tool for change against an unresponsive, party dominated, parliamentary system that seemed unconcerned with the natural and cultural needs of the people."
For more see:
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/oct1999chase.htm
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair trotted out ‘third way’ notions. However, they were simply shifting rhetorical strategy along the high road of the Anglo-American Neo-liberal globalist power paradigm.
So it is important to appreciate how the roots and branches of “Third Way†politics extend by way of ideology in historical and political space.
Perhaps Mr. Powell-Bullock's mention of LaRouche is intended to suggest the many caveats that greet those who in befuddlement wander off the processed power-soaked reservation of the two party system looking for the third way.
LaRouche, whose critique of economics and British Zionism, is thus the thin edge of a thick cultic wedge with many caveats to be considered.
Sourcewatch presents this take on LaRouche:
“Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. (born September 8, 1922) is an American politician, and a perennial candidate for President of the United States. While he associates himself with the Democratic Party, he has never been that party's nominee for office and he is not accepted within the mainstream of the party, although he has won the acceptance of Democratic Party mavericks such as Senator Eugene McCarthy and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark. He has also won some non-binding Democratic state primaries, including North Dakota in 1992 and Michigan in 2000. He believes that a monetary-financial crisis akin to the Great Depression is imminent, and was a candidate in the 2004 US Presidential Election. In his early political career LaRouche often used the pseudonym Lyn Marcus.
His political views are extremely controversial and are characterized by his belief in a number of complex conspiracy theories, involving global plots to establish a frightening New World Order, involving such figures as the British Royal Family (especially the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), George P. Shultz, and George H. W. Bush and other circles of international bankers engaging in what he has characterized as a "synarchist" political movement of the oligarchy. A typical claim is that the government of East Germany-- with the complicity of U.S. government and private organizations! -- attempted to frame him for the murder of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme. According to LaRouche followers, this claim was corroborated on Swedish national radio in August of 1992, by a leading former East German Stasi officer, Dr. Herbert Brehmer. LaRouche's opponents on the political conservative right have characterized him as a fascist and a communist, his opponents on the political liberal and socialist left have characterized him as a fascist, Bonapartist, and a right-wing populist. LaRouche currently characterizes himself as an Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democrat.
According to Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, however:
"Though often dismissed as a bizarre political cult, the LaRouche organization and its various front groups are a fascist movement whose pronouncements echo elements of Nazi ideology.[1] Beginning in the 1970s, the LaRouchites combined populist antielitism with attacks on leftists, environmentalists, feminists, gay men and lesbians, and organized labor. They advocated a dictatorship in which a 'humanist' elite would rule on behalf of industrial capitalists. They developed an idiosyncratic, coded variation on the Illuminati Freemason and Jewish banker conspiracy theories. Their views, though exotic, were internally consistent and rooted in right-wing populist traditions."[1] (
http://www.publiceye.org/larouche/synthesis.html)
Chip Berlet & Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America, p. 273.
For more see:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?ti ... n_LaRouche
Curiously enough, LaRouche warned America about Green politics in 1984. Chase writes: "Having purchased 30 minutes of prime time commercial television for a campaign spot, extreme right-winger Lyndon LaRouche stood before the camera to "alert" the American people to the dangerous rise of Green politics in Europe and the United States. He denounced the West German Green Party as the hub of a powerful international "neo-Nazi" movement out to reduce the United States to complete submission. He repeatedly uttered phrases like "violent Green Stormtroopers marching through the streets of Berlin" while old film clips of Nazi street demonstrations flickered across the screen. He concluded by charging that Vice President Walter Mondale was the brains behind a conference held in Saint Paul, Minnesota the previous August to launch an "anti- American" Green movement in the United States."
I know we have wandered deep into the ingredients that Mr. Slife’s post has suggested. However, Mr. Powell-Bullock’s point about LaRouche in the context of local politics called for the provision of additional context.
Critical insight is the antidote to progressive befuddlement.
Kenneth Warren
No, in all seriousness, I get your point...that campaigners analyze demographics and use marketing techniques on their liturature.