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Article: The Insurgency.("Fighting the Good Fight: A History of the New York Conservative Party 1962-2002")
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- May 20, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Fighting the Good Fight: A History of the New York Conservative Party 1962-2002, by George J. Marlin (St. Augustine's Press, 400 pp., $28)
Third parties have often served a useful purpose in American politics, but they are expected to fold their tents and fade away once that purpose has been served. Ordinarily they are born out of concern about some particular issue -- Abolition, Free Silver, Prohibition -- and disappear when one or the other of the two major parties co-opts the issue, or it simply dies. Even when the parties are founded with some grander notion, either the Republicans or the Democrats tend to be the ultimate beneficiary -- as when the Democrats ...