CHAPTER 11 THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM:DEFINING THE VOTERS'CHOICE 255 The Right to Life party is a modern example of a single-issue party.Its sole concern is the reversal of the legalization of abortion.(Paul Conklin) each of which operates on the fringe of American politics.In fact,their combined popular vote was less than 1 percent of the total in the 1988 presidential election.Ideological parties tend to gain strength during times of social and political upheaval.The Socialist party received 6 percent of the presidential vote in 1912,largely from voters dissatisfied with the monopolistic practices of business trusts.11 One of the strongest ideological parties in the nation's history was the Populist party.'Its candidate in the 1892 presidential election,James B.Weaver, gained 8.5 percent of the national vote and won twenty-two electoral votes in six Western states.The party began as a protest movement in response to the econdmic depression and business monopolies of the 1890s.12 It had an agrarian base,a result of the anger of small farmers over low commodity prices,tight credit,and the high rates charged by railroad monopolies to transport farm goods.The Populist platform called for government ownership of the railroads, a graduated income tax,low tariffs on imports,and elimination of the gold standard.The Populist party in 1896 endorsed the Democratic presidential nominee,William Jennings Bryan,and its support probably hurt the Democrats 'Some classifications of minor parties place the Populists in a category-"economic protest parties"-that is not used here.In this author's judgment,parties that other scholars place in the economic protest category are actually either ideological parties,as in the case of the Populists,or single-issue parties,such as the Greenback party.The Populists'positions on economic power and redistribution constitute a broad and radical philosophy,which is the defining characteristic of an ideological party bid.,58-59. Walter Dean Burnham,Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics (New York: Norton,1970),27;see also Lawrence Goodwyn,The Populist Movement (New York:Oxford University Press,1978)