Despite spirited challenges from the People’s Party and the Progressive party during the turn of the 20th century, the American political duopoly has continued unabated. Duverger’s Law, which says that electoral systems like ours lead to a two-party domination, has held true in America.
The many advantages available to established major parties have helped preserve the political duopoly, and the two parties have been very active in taking steps to maintain their joint control. For example, 42 of the 50 states have legally banned a vital tactic once available to third parties: electoral fusion.
Electoral fusion is the practice of smaller parties uniting with each other on an electoral ticket, or perhaps even uniting with a major party that needs help winning an election. Fusion parties will nominate the same candidate, so a vote for either party is a vote for both. This allows smaller parties subvert Duverger’s Law by combining forces, or by riding a larger party’s coattails. But this approach has long been illegal is most states, and in 1996 the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of such bans, thereby further crippling smaller parties.
Lacking a parliamentary system, and painted into a corner by the major parties, it is very difficult for smaller parties in America to gain representation in legislative bodies. Thus, neither house of Congress currently has a third party member; the 435 members of the House are entirely Republicans and Democrats, while the Senate boasts two “independents” among its 100 members, one of whom is a former major party member. The other, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is actually a socialist who runs as an independent, because the combination of third party repression and the legacy of the Cold War makes it political suicide to call oneself a Socialist in America.
Of late, it seems that the only viable way to overcome the American political duopoly to any substantial degree is to be a billionaire.
In 1992, Ross Perot ran for president against Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton. Financing his own campaign to the tune of over $12 million, Perot raked in nearly a fifth of the popular vote. But he earned no electoral votes, and his Reform Party was a party in name only; in reality it was little more than a vehicle for his personal ambition.
More recently, billionaire Michael Bloomberg used his vast wealth to finance three successful elections as mayor of New York City. A political newcomer, Bloomberg was a Democrat with insufficient sway in the city’s Democratic machine. So he used his wealth to bend the duopoly to his ends, becoming a Republican out of sheer political expedience, and emerging as arguably that party’s most liberal elected official this century. Ironically perhaps, New York is one of the few states where electoral fusion is still allowed, and Bloomberg also used that tactic to his advantage. He funneled some of his money through the Independence Party, which helped him immensely during his first mayoral run in 2001.
At the moment there are quite a few small parties floating about, like stellar debris circling the twin solar orbit of the Republican/Democratic duopoly. Among them, the two small parties with the most followers and the most national name recognition are the Green Party and the Libertarian Party.
I believe that the very existence of the duopoly itself has a deleterious effect on American politics. And I believe breaking down that duopoly could potentially benefit the United States. All of this has led me to wonder about the possibility of an unorthodox political strategy:
Is it time for a Green-Libertarian alliance?
At first glance, this seems ludicrous. After all, Greens and Libertarians are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. But then again, elementary political theory teaches us that the metaphorical spectrum of politics is like the spectrum of visible light: a circle. Go far enough in one direction and you just might come out on the other side.
Like most thoughtful Greens, I can’t help but notice that there are some elements of libertarian philosophy that appeal to me. Likewise, I’ve met many Libertarians who are simpatico with certain Green ideas. While offering disparate economic policies, the two groups do have clear overlaps in both domestic and foreign policy.
With that in mind, I can’t help but think a political alliance might serve them well and help mitigate the duopoly’s marginalizing effects. Could an alliance between these two outsider parties benefit them both? And if so, what would it actually look like?
The first step would be finding a way to make this odd couple pairing somehow palatable to both parties. The starting point is of course their mutual opposition to the duopoly. In addition to seeking a political advantage through some form of 
alliance, both parties can rally around the belief that the duopoly itself is a major contributing factor in the denigration of American politics and society.
Beyond political expedience and mutual antipathies, the two parties would need to find enough philosophical middle ground to make the pairing viable. And that could begin with the shared space at the intersections of Green social progressivism and social libertarianism. Both parties, though not always for the same reasons, do have several shared ideals in this area.
Shared general outlooks include: maintaining a wall of separation between church and state; supporting gender equality; supporting equal rights for GBLT people; and liberal interpretations of free speech. Both parties also both promote several specific policies, including: abortion rights; the right to die; ending capital punishment; scaling back (or eliminating altogether) U.S. surveillance of Americans; and ending the war on drugs. And in foreign affairs, Greens and Libertarians both favor tempering U.S. intervention abroad.
An amalgamation of these and other domestic and foreign policies may be enough to broach a temporary political alliance. But what would that alliance look like and what can it accomplish? In other words, to what extent can it help America skirt Duverger’s Law?
Potential real politick advantages, which both parties could reap from a temporary, earnest, and skillfully implemented alliance, are manifold. Such an action could draw more attention to both parties and their platforms. It could increase both of their vote totals, perhaps culminating with electoral victories. And it could decrease their political isolation, advancing their fuller integration into American society, culture, and political life.
How would it actually work? That is probably the most complicated part.
In the 8 states where electoral fusion is legal, this is an important tactic to consider. From time to time, run mutually acceptable candidates on a joint ticket. Vote counts should at least double, and that in turn could lead to a snowball effect.
In the rest of America, both parties should begin a campaign to overturn oligarchic bans on fusion. In the meantime, however, the two parties could form an unofficial fusion. Essentially, they could trade votes. Each party could urge its members to vote for the other party’s candidate when not running their own candidate. In other words, encouraging Greens to vote for Libertarians when there is no Green candidate and visa versa. Such consolidations could have the effect of boosting vote counts for both parties.
In presidential elections, the two parties might trade quadrennial cycles, so that both parties would unite behind each other’s candidate in alternating elections. If either should reach the magical 5% threshold of popular votes, as Green candidate Ralph Nader almost did in 2000, that party would be eligible for public campaign financing the next time around.
Finally, aside from concrete political gains, real outreach may perhaps be the most productive thing that could emerge from Greens-Libertarian alliance. While the two sides will clearly never agree on many, or perhaps even most issues, coming together for planning and strategy sessions could undoubtedly help both groups as they design ways to subvert Duverger’s Law, to pull America from the clutches of its slouching, snorting duopoly, and to breath real life into an increasingly broken political system.