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If you’re frustrated with the two-party system in American politics — you’re not alone. Millions of Americans feel like our government doesn’t represent them. Like they’re stuck choosing between the “lesser of two evils.” Like their vote doesn’t really matter.
And now, Elon Musk is tapping into that frustration by floating the idea of a new “America Party” to break up the two-party system.
He’s not wrong about the problem. But the truth is, creating another party in a broken system won’t fix it. Here’s why.
The way our elections are set up — with closed party primaries and winner-take-all rules — actually reinforces the two-party system. What we call the “Primary Problem” makes it nearly impossible for independent or third-party candidates to succeed. That’s why new parties so often end up as “spoilers,” splitting the vote and helping elect the candidate voters like least. That’s not democracy — that’s dysfunction.
How do we know it won’t work? Because we’ve tried it.
Unite America was founded a decade ago to disrupt the two-party system by supporting independent candidates. Our Executive Director, Nick Troiano, even ran for Congress in 2014 as an independent. He earned more votes than any independent House candidate running against two major party candidates in over 20 years — and still only got 13% of the vote.
After a few hard-fought election cycles, we realized the problem wasn’t the candidates. It was the rules. As the New York Times reported this week, we “stopped nominating candidates after the 2018 election and shifted our focus to pushing for changes in election laws.” Until we fix how elections work, nothing else will change.
That’s why we shifted our focus to election reform — specifically, changing the rules so that every candidate can compete, every voter can participate, and more votes are meaningful. Reforms like open, all-candidate primaries could help give Americans more choices on the ballot — a step toward the kind of competition Elon envisions to challenge the two-party system.
And the good news? They work. In states like Alaska and Maine, where these reforms are already in place, voters are freer to vote their values without worrying about spoilers. More candidates — including independents and third-party hopefuls — are able to run viable campaigns. And elections are more representative of the people, not the parties.
So if you agree with Elon Musk that the system is broken — we’re with you.
But if we want to truly fix it, we need more than a new party. We need to change the rules of the game.
It’s time to put voters — not parties — first.
Chuck Todd (3:15-3:19): “If you're not working to fix the electoral machinery, then you're just a protest candidate with a checkbook.”
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