As dissatisfaction with the two-party system grows in the USA, the thought of an alternate, nevertheless unlikely, good points traction. Elon Musk’s current name for an America Get together could also be unserious, however it speaks to one thing actual.
Surveys persistently present that thousands and thousands of American voters really feel they lack actual selections. They imagine the 2 main events don’t replicate their values, and they’re exhausted by the fixed polarization.
The larger query isn’t whether or not Musk succeeds. As a public coverage scholar, I feel it’s why the U.S. political system is so hostile to new voices and concepts within the first place.
Why third events not often succeed
If he follows by means of on his concept, can Musk’s America Get together really take off? In all probability not. Historical past isn’t on his aspect.
That’s as a result of the U.S. political system is structurally rigged towards third events, with deeply entrenched authorized and procedural obstacles that make it almost unimaginable for brand spanking new events to realize traction.
In most states, getting a brand new celebration on the poll is a formidable job. It entails gathering 1000’s of signatures, assembly stringent deadlines and complying with obscure submitting necessities.
Even when a celebration will get on the poll in a single state, replicating that effort nationally is extraordinarily arduous. Every state has completely different legal guidelines, deadlines, signature necessities and authorized calls for.
Poll entry, marketing campaign finance, media protection and election guidelines overwhelmingly favor the prevailing Republican and Democratic events. Even the Federal Election Fee is designed for partisan impasse with an excellent variety of members from every of the 2 main events.
In a 2025 article on election administration in America, my colleagues and I analyzed all 50 state election codes. We discovered widespread authorized and administrative obstacles that systematically exclude independents and minor events.
In 45 states, solely main celebration members can serve on election boards, native or state our bodies accountable for overseeing the administration of elections. In 27 states, judges should be registered with a serious celebration. Marketing campaign finance legal guidelines, entry to voter knowledge and registration guidelines additionally tilt the sphere to the main events.
These structural obstacles exist in each purple and blue states. We discovered no statistical correlation between partisan leanings and these restrictions. That’s telling. It means that each events, no matter their ideological variations, are united in defending their duopoly.
Elon Musk introduced in July 2025 that he’s launching a brand new political celebration.
Jim Watson/AFP by way of Getty Photos
The founders’ warning
This entrenched two-party management runs opposite to the imaginative and prescient of the U.S. Structure’s framers, who deliberately excluded political events from the founding doc.
This was no accident. The founders seen events as “factions” that had no professional place within the republic.
George Washington in 1796 warned that events would inflame animosity and that the nation couldn’t do sufficient to guard itself from this. John Adams frightened that “a division of the republic into two great parties … is to be dreaded as the great political evil.” Likewise, Alexander Hamilton feared events as “the most fatal disease” of presidency and hoped America might dispense of such teams.
An urge for food for options
Enter Elon Musk. His suggestion to create the America Get together faucets straight right into a rising nationwide frustration with the two-party entrenchment.
Public belief in main political events is at historic lows, notably amongst younger voters and independents, who don’t determine with any main celebration and should register as “no party preference,” “unaffiliated” or “independent” relying on state legal guidelines.
Regardless of Musk being broadly unpopular, liable to conspiracy theories and exhibiting erratic and unpredictable politics, his proposal resonates with many People. An October 2024 ballot discovered that 58% of U.S. adults say a 3rd celebration is required.
Moreover, the variety of American voters figuring out as politically impartial continues to exceed every of the main political events.
What do People actually need?
Even when Musk by no means follows by means of, the thought of a brand new celebration highlights how undemocratic U.S. elections have change into. It opens the door to conversations about reforms that give independents and third events a good shot and displays the rising demand for options to the two-party system.
Voters are pissed off by restricted selections that fail to seize their full vary of political opinions.
There are fashions to study from. Most democracies use a nonpartisan election administration and don’t let political events management the foundations.
Within the U.S., partisans referee contests through which members of their celebration straight compete. That battle of curiosity could be unacceptable in enterprise or sports activities. So why is it tolerated in elections?
Constructive views of U.S. political establishments are at historic lows.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Photos
Structural reforms and designs have been carried out to various levels within the U.S. with a aim of creating democracy extra responsive, truthful, clear and consultant.
Reforms equivalent to open primaries, which permit voters of any celebration affiliation to take part in any celebration’s main election, proportional illustration in locations equivalent to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon, the place political events acquire seats in proportion to the variety of votes they obtain, and impartial redistricting commissions have helped create extra aggressive electoral districts by decreasing partisan gerrymandering.
So, too, have ranked-choice voting and fusion voting. In ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates by desire. If nobody will get a majority, the lowest-ranked candidates are eradicated and votes are redistributed till somebody wins. In fusion voting, a number of political events can endorse the identical candidate, who then seems on the poll below every endorsing celebration’s line.
Nonetheless, implementation of such reforms has been restricted. Opposition to those reforms by the Democratic and Republican events has, in lots of instances, been fierce.
It’s the system
The 2-party system has insulated itself from competitors.
The consequence is that right now America has an impenetrable two-party system, the very situation the framers and reformers feared most. Moderately than focusing solely on Musk’s ambitions, the extra urgent query is how you can construct an electoral system that displays a contemporary, numerous democracy.
If People need extra selections, and polling suggests they do, then they might need to study the authorized and procedural obstacles that lock within the present system, which fails to handle and accommodate their political preferences.
