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Senior Thesis: Third Parties

8.27.2008



Many of you are already aware of the bane of my existance...my never-ending battle to write my senior thesis for my History degree. Last fall I signed up for the Civil War & Reconstruction era. I thought it would be easy to write something new about slave spirituals. Boy, was I wrong. That topic is so vast I couldn't ever find my little niche to enlighten the world with. But now, I think I'm onto something.
I have heard the Nader campaign casually mention that Lincoln was a third-party candidate and won. He beat out the dominate two parties at the time, the Whigs and the Democrats. So I'm doing some preliminary research. It is interesting to note that Lincoln started out his political career part of the Whig party...they were pro-bank, pro-corporation, etc. Interesting in contrast to Nader, yes? I'm wondering if our country will have to reach a crisis as large as the country separating in order to get some new blood in the White House. Do any of you have other interesting questions you'd like me to pursue as I do my research? I'd appreciate any insight and help!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

check out the Modern Whigs... They have gained 10,000 members (6,500) in the military in just a short time, and are mainstream, non-fringe and realistic to go along with an innovative strategy.

http://www.modernwhig.org

http://pundit.blogpeoria.com/2008/08/24/politics-modern-whigs-will-make-their-move-in-2009

Dee said...

I'm thinking a third-party candidate was able to win because people actually PAID ATTENTION during those times. Americans have become spoiled lazy brats and yes, it will take something drastic for people to WAKE UP.

Dee said...

Have you heard of or read the book A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn? I'm reading and loving it. It's a complete history 1492-present, but it might have some useful information about the Civil War era for you.