Third-Party Effort Has A Fatal Flaw

Other American tycoons consider themselves lucky if they can buy a U.S. senator. Ross Perot, whose fortune is exceeded in size only by his ego, wants to buy himself a new political party.

Odd as it is for a billionaire to masquerade as a populist - a regular guy who wants to cut the power of big money in politics - we would like to wish him luck.

He’ll need it.

The last time Perot tried to save us from the Democrats and Republicans, he cemented the election for the quintessential politician of 1992: Bill Clinton. If Clinton is whistling while he works this week, Perot is the reason. Again.

Every time a major third-party candidate has entered the presidential fray in the last century, that candidate merely has split the vote and helped an opponent win. It is ironic that major thirdparty candidates stand for, more than any other idea, dissatisfaction with the Republican or Democratic nominees they end up assisting.

Discouraging, isn’t it?

This year, more than ever, Americans have reason for dissatisfaction with the two top parties. Their candidates seem to be panderers, not leaders. The Democratic Party panders to government-worker unions and malcontent “gimme” groups; the Republican Party panders to self-righteous moralizers and self-indulgent corporations. Neither extreme offers much to average working people, who suffer as much from the corporate predators as from the government busybodies.

When Americans feel unrepresented, they have two choices: Pitch in to fix the system or give up.

If they give up and don’t vote, they guarantee another disillusioning battle between the extremes.

So, if a third party could get off the ground - or at least cause a course correction by one of the two major parties - plenty of Americans would be thrilled.

Yet, Ross Perot’s new party has a fatal flaw. Namely, its founder.

The more he talked in 1992, the more Americans recognized him as The Boss From Hell: an egocentric demagogue, puffed up with simplistic slogans, accustomed to getting his way, surrounded by toadies like that pathetic vice presidential candidate, Adm. What’s-His-Name, and uncomfortable with the dissent and compromise which are the essence of democracy.

It would take a miracle for the Texas billionaire to create a party and then back off so its candidates would have credibility linked to the public rather than their benefactor.

If we can’t have a miracle, we can hope Perot at least might spook the Republicans or the Democrats toward the mainstream.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board