DUE: Thursday, Feb 14

Yes, there are other political parties in the United States besides Democratic and Republican. These third parties, however, rarely get much publicity on the national political scene. For example, while Ross Perot was permitted to debate George Bush and Bill Clinton in 1992, Ralph Nader, a 30+ year political activist and recent presidential nominee for the Green Party, was prohibited from participating in the 2000 and 2004 presidential debates. In 2016, although the major party nominees, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, were unpopular,Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson didn't garner enough support to appear on the debate stage. For better or worse, the United States seems to be stuck with a two-party system.
 
For this project, you will choose a third party from the list below and do the following:

• Write a historical background of your political party.
• Describe your party’s political philosophy/ideology and place them on the political spectrum.
• Discuss party’s positions on at least four major issues.  Explain how the party justifies its positions.
• Include any current news regarding your party and discuss its goals for the future.
• Finally, conclude your paper with a personal reaction/opinion of this third party.
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Create your presentation on Google Slides and include at least TEN SLIDES. Share with me at durban@bmchsd.org. I will give you plenty of time in class to work on this project. As always, grammar and spelling count, and plagiarism will result in a ZERO.
 
Here are the third parties from which you may choose (I have also included their official websites):

• Working Families Party (http://www.workingfamilies.org)
• Libertarian Party (http://www.lp.org)
• Green Party (http://www.gp.org)
• Democratic Socialists of America (www.dsausa.org)
• Reform Party (http://www.reformparty.org)
• Constitution Party (http://www.constitutionparty.com)
• Progressive Party (VT) (http://progressiveparty.org)
• Conservative Party (NY) (http://www.cpnys.org) 

Why do we have only two dominant parties in our democratic political system? The following article does a nice job of summarizing why the two-party system persists and why third parties have such difficulty elbowing their way in.

​Third Parties in the U.S. Political Process

Also, I found a pretty good PowerPoint on the Youth Leadership Initiative website. 
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And finally, Ralph Nader's classic interview about third parties from Meet the Press​.

Today we're comparing the two major parties in the United States. Visit their official websites and complete the following worksheet. Then, tonight for homework, summarize 2 recent news articles on Clinton and Trump (1 article each).

- Comparing Political Parties worksheet

Here are today's notes on the differences between liberals and conservatives on major economic, social, moral, and foreign policy issues.

Liberals vs. Conservatives