During the dead-heat election of 2000, third party candidates should have been contenders. Ralph Nader held stadium super-rallies attended by thousands of activists, and anti-globalization protests brought many disenfranchised citizens back into politics. The public said they were more receptive to third parties than ever, but the Buchanan and Nader campaigns couldn't pull in the votes. Why? Combining the close-in, personal reporting and learned analysis one can only get by covering this beat for years, Micah L. Sifry's Spoiling for a Fight exposes both the unfair obstacles and the viable opportunities facing today's leading independent parties. In this energetic chronicle of a defiant community on the move, Micah L. Sifry covers the political spectrum-from the victorious campaigns of Jesse Ventura and New Mexico Green party candidates to the less successful runs of Ross Perot and Ralph Nader-revealing along the way all the achievements and shortcomings of the remarkable recent third-party movements of the left, right, and center.
The two-party system has long been brain-dead, Sifry argues, kept on life-support by discriminatory ballot access, unequal campaign financing winner-take-all races, and biased media coverage. Yet, after years of grassroots organizing, third parties are now poised to make major inroads. Bringing together interviews with the major third-party candidates and their supporters with lively narratives and insightful analysis, Sifry provides a compelling overview of the most vital developments in American politics today.