Containment Rhetoric and the Redefinition of Third-Parties in the Equal Time Debates of 1959

摘要

This article suggests that the shortcomings of third-party presidential campaigns stem partially from a culture of rhetorical containment tracing back to a redefinition of third-parties during the 1959 congressional hearings over the equal time provision. After proposing a four-part framework for rhetorical containment, the article examines the case study of oddball perennial presidential candidate Lar Daly and his clash with the Federal Communications Commission, and an effort by the two major parties and media elite to exploit fears of his influence to portray third-parties as an invading horde of crackpots posing violence to democracy in the United States.