My letter in The New York Times about the formation of the Forward Party

The following is a letter to the editor that I wrote, which appeared in The New York Times, about the formation of the Forward Party:

August 8, 2022

To the Editor:

Re “Andrew Yang’s New Third Party Will Fail,” by Jamelle Bouie (column, July 31):

The Forward Party’s founders are right about the lamentable level of acrimony in American politics today, but their plan to address the underlying issues is fundamentally flawed.

The political discourse has regrettably become divisive and dangerous, and extremism has crept into the mainstream at an alarming rate. We would benefit immensely from restoring a measure of respect and gentility to America’s political framework. But forming a new third party to “reintroduce choice and competition” is not the answer.

Mr. Bouie is correct about third parties historically being founded to further a particular issue or ideal. However, unlike the Equal Rights Party, the Constitution Party, the Working Families Party and many others, the Forward Party is predicated on nothing more than an amorphous notion of catering to moderates and creating more political choices.

We do not need more choices; rather, we need to focus on restoring civility and bipartisanship to the political lexicon. To weather the political tempest that clouds our democratic system, we need to fix the existing parties, not create new ones.

N. Aaron Troodler
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.