ABSTRACT
The rules of the game, adopted and managed largely by economic elites', have made the American political system peculiarly inhospitable to the politics of the labor-left. Although theoretically possible, no case exists in American history where a third party has pushed aside a major party and won a national election. Republicans occupied the White House for twenty-six of the thirty-eight years ending in 1990, and indeed, the presidency, an office of extraordinary powers, has been the stronghold of conservative political strength. The problem of nonvoting is rooted in the way alternatives are defined, Schattschneider says, "the way in which issues get referred to the public, the scale of competition and organization and above all by what issues are developed". Republicans, who had waged the bloodiest war in history in part to free the slaves, forged a lasting political bond with southern economic elites and effectively demobilized populism and poor Democratic voters in the South.
