Someone reminded me today that yesterday was the birthday of Eugene Victor Debs, pioneer industrial unionist and Socialist presidential candidate. Eugene Debs was an elected Democrat who was self educated after he was put in jail for refusing to obey an injunction for a strike he had organized. After being released from jail he helped found the first Socialist political party in the USA, the ‘Social Democratic Party of the USA.’ He ran as the Socialist Party’s candidate for the presidency in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920, the last time from his prison cell. He was in prison for a speech denouncing American participation in World War I. Debs died in 1926 not long after being admitted to a sanatorium, or what we would now call a behavior health facility.

I mention the Debs story because today I received two other emails from young men trying to build a 3rd party movement in Wisconsin. One was for a candidate for the Green Party, an international political party, who had run for the State Assembly from Madison, WI. He was defeated. Third parties in the USA have had little success in recent years. Another email was from a young man in Milwaukee who was trying to revive the Green party movement here. It has faded away in recent times.

Most countries have multiple political parties. The fact that a third party cannot take hold in the USA today, like the Socialists did in the 20th century, says a lot to me about the state of politics in America. In my opinion we have one major political party with two sides to it, which pretend to feud but in reality are controlled by the same ‘powers that be’ and push similar agendas on us.

Milwaukee has a history of great socialist mayors and governments, but not in recent times. In fact in local bipartisan elections in the city it is hard to tell a Republican from a Democrat. By their actions on the regional and national scenes it is hard to distinguish the difference between a Republican and Democrat.

Where is a Eugene Debs of our time? I think it is impossible today to have one. Convicted criminals, like Eugene Debs (or myself — see Milwaukee14), cannot even run for office in Wisconsin. The one party system of Democrats/Republicans, financed by the rich and powerful, will not allow it. No third parties any longer in the USA.

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