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Tucker Carlson first publicly proposed building a third political party on July 1 in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review. A month later during a livestream, Carlson revealed a 10-point manifesto that is the foundation for what he hopes is a new political movement.

“The parties are in lockstep solidarity with each other,” Carlson said in the interview. “That’s not a democracy. That’s a one-party state posing as a democracy, and it needs to be broken, and there’s going to be a third party, and I’m going to do everything I can to bring that about.”

But most of Carlson’s objectives are so tightly aligned with the Republican Party’s that reforming the GOP would be a far more effective long-term use of conservative efforts than springing to start a new party.

Carlson said the United States needs a third party because the Republican Party hates its voters and no longer represents them.

“You’re being lied to every day by people who claim to represent you,” Carlson said. “If you want to save America, you have to start by telling the truth.”

This retaliation against the party that Carlson has long supported comes on the heels of a rift between himself and President Donald Trump that’s gone on since the summer of last year. Carlson opposes Trump’s policy decisions in the Iran war and has questioned the president’s motives in continuing the war and defending Israel.

“I feel betrayed,” he said in an April interview with the Wall Street Journal. “Why can’t the U.S. government act on behalf of its own citizens?”

This is the main issue that’s pushing Carlson to break from the Republican Party and that he hopes the plans laid out in his manifesto will remedy. 

Among the points of Carlson’s manifesto lies a call to national unity. It’s ironic that Carlson claims he wants unity as he takes active steps to fragment the political state. He says he doesn’t want to divide the country, but a quick glance at history shows the inevitability of this consequence. 

Historian and Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College  Victor Davis Hanson has noted in commentary for The Daily Signal that eight out of 10 points from Carlson’s manifesto fall in line with the efforts of the Trump administration. Both advocate for controlled borders, economic productivity, cleaner food, government official accountability, and the nuclear family. The divergence lies in issues of foreign policy, most notably surrounding the Iran war. 

Carlson opposes the war as an obstruction to putting “America first,” but in practice, creating an additional domestic dispute would lead to greater long-term harm. Hanson condemned Carlson’s plan, citing the injury caused by previous third-party movements.

“Third parties in American political history have no record in the modern era of ever winning,” Hanson said. “They do affect the election, but only to hurt the party that is more ideologically akin to the third party running.”

The split of the right that Hanson predicts is already happening as Carlson’s third-party plan garners support from the conservative movement. Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who fell out with Trump last year over the Epstein files, also called for support of a third party. 

“There is a group of us that have literally fought the system,” Greene said. “I think there’s a group of us that, if we decide to align, could launch a true America-focused party that doesn’t fall into the traps of Democrats and Republicans, but align some serious players from the right and the left, and move forward.”

The exasperation amongst U.S. citizens with both parties is substantial. A poll conducted by The New York Times and the Siena Research Institute in May found that 43% of registered voters are dissatisfied with both the Republican and Democratic parties. 

The proposal of a third party is bound to sound appealing. American citizens yearn for a clean slate, but forming a new party would do more harm than good. Even if it were successful, Carlson suggests no measures to prevent corruption yet again.

The hard work is in working together. Political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in “Democracy in America,” “If men are to remain civilized or to become so, the art of associating together must grow and improve.” If influential conservative leaders like Trump and Carlson continue to break connections and avoid the difficult task of proposing policies together, decency and civility in the political arena will continue to decline. 

A third party is not a shortcut. It’s a mistake.

Lucy Billings is a sophomore studying economics.