Third parties (United States politics)

This thesis analyzes how the American political system presents specific rhetorical constraints for independent and third party candidates who are "othered" by the system. To better understand how independent candidates overcome these constraints, the rhetoric of two such recent candidates, Charlie Crist and Joe Lieberman, is analyzed using ideographic criticism. These two candidates were originally affiliated with one of the two major political parties, but changed their party affiliation to run as Independent candidates. To facilitate their transition to independent candidates, both politicians used popular American political ideographs such as "the people," "freedom," and "unity" to maintain their allegiance to America and their constituencies, while separating their political ideology from their prior party affiliation. The ideographic analysis reveals that independent candidates can create nuanced changes in the meanings of popular ideographs to transcend partisan interpretations and create a positive perception of political "otherness."

I begin by identifying right-libertarians as individuals who believe, foremost, that legislators should reduce the size of the national government. A number of right-libertarians support a Congressional tax reform proposal, the Fair Tax. This support is surprising because the bill is revenue neutral : it therefore does not directly address concerns over increasing Congressional spending or growth of government. Are right-libertarians sacrificing their principles for expediency or is there some other explanation? I argue right-libertarians mainly support the bill because they (1) believe Congress would abolish the IRS as soon as it went into effect, increasing citizens' privacy in the process ; and (2) view it as a gradual reform that would lead to further legislation intended to reduce the size of government.