Introducing the America Party
Every few years or so, some political activist with a smidgeon of name recognition creates a new political party. The latest iteration of this pattern will be called The America Party, and its founder is none other than Elon Musk, former bromance partner of Donald Trump and head honcho of the (now inactive) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Usually, the main purpose behind the founding of a new political party is to get the founder nominated to be U.S. President. But since Musk was not born in the U.S. (his birthplace is South Africa), he is ineligible for that. But the new party is moving forward just the same.
I've scoured the internet trying to find some information on just what the America Party's exact goals are. Not much out there. It appears that the party's primary purpose is merely to put up some competition against Trump and the Republicans for the 2026 mid-term elections.
There is nothing evil or nefarious about having political parties. They are, at the core, simply a group of people with similar ideology who unite to promote their cause. The problem, however, is when political parties become permanently entrenched in concrete. Many, including your favorite blogger, detest the fact that American politics has become exactly that! I've blogged many times that a dynamic political system, where parties are continuously forming, dying, merging, splitting, et cetera, makes elections much more interesting and issue-focused. But since most voters believe that our two-party system is prescribed via the Constitution itself, and our winner-take-all election system consolidates political power into major parties and handicaps minor parties, that's not likely to change in our lifetime.
Still, the minor parties keep appearing. Please note that I call them "minor" parties, not "third" parties. I HATE that word "third", for many reasons, starting with the simple fact that there are way more than three of them out there! A quick internet count turns up over forty political parties, nation-wide. (That excludes single-state parties - nearly every state has at least one). Some of these national parties have been around for many decades, and hang on by the slenderest threads of membership.
It seems that, when it comes to naming a minor party, their founders are in a bit of a rut. Some words that come up again and again are: "Conservative", "Liberal", "Freedom", "Christian", "Constitution", "Unity" (or "United"), "Moderate", "Independent", "Socialist" (or "Social"), and "Work" (or "Working"). Even the word "Marijuana" has been used more than once.
Oh, and Elon, the word "America" (or "American") has already been taken, several times. He might want to check out at least this one before settling on that name.
If one had to classify all these minor parties by ideology, the single largest group would be all the progressives and left-wingers. I counted fourteen of them, including the infamous Communist Party, and at least eight bearing the word "Social/Socialist", such as this one and this one. (I only counted two that could be considered Conservative, such as this one.)
A few minors are single-issue, such as the Prohibition Party (yeah, they're still around). And then you have your racist parties such as the Black Riders, or the white supremacist group the American Freedom Party (there's your "American" moniker again).
But a lot of minor parties were created, not around an idea or an issue, but rather, around some single, rather ambitious individual, with the goal of advancing his career. See: Reform Party (founder: Ross Perot), or the American Independent Party (founder: Henry Wallace).
Size-wise, the largest minor party today is the Libertarian Party (LP), which boasts about 700,000 members. Ideologically speaking, the LP is the only organized political party with a consistent platform of small government across-the-board. (I, of course, support the agenda and mission statement of the LP; but the discussion of whether or not running electoral candidates is a worthy use of resources is another topic for another article.)
Other contenders for honorable mention in membership numbers are the Green Party (160,000 members), No Labels (110,000), and the so-called Peace And Freedom party (138,000 members, and actually has a left-wing agenda). No minor party has ever come close to electing a President, although of course they all nominate somebody every election cycle. However, it bears noting that the Libertarians, the Greens, and others have indeed elected state and local officials.
So, Elon, creating yet another third party - excuse me, a minor party - is not a new idea at all. Although some may have had brief spurts of popularity, none of them can boast any real electoral successes. However, if you must proceed, at least come up with a more unique and descriptive name than "The America Party", and tell us its goals. Or better yet, resurrect one of the other handful of zombie right-wing has-beens, such as the Constitution Party, and give it a go.