Minor Parties: Past and Present Throughout the history of American politics, there have been countless political parties that have formed, disbanded, and evolved, and nearly all of them have helped shape today’s American political structure in some way. These groups have made significant contributions to American politics and have both directly and indirectly impacted election outcomes. In both the 1912 and the 1968 presidential elections, minor party candidates not only secured a significant amount of support, but influenced drastic change in political views and processes in the United States. In addition to these historical examples, minor parties continue to have a significant role in American politics, and in the 2012 Presidential Election, the Libertarian and Green Parties both nominated candidates that had potential to make a significant impact. Many scholars today believe minor parties only to be “spoilers” in presidential elections; they say that they merely take enough votes away from one candidate to cause the other candidate to win the election (Trautman, 2014). While this does occur, minor parties have a much greater impact on American politics than as merely election spoilers. They often present issues that are important to the American populous that may be overlooked by the large political machines that are the Democratic and Republican parties. After the major parties study these issues, often they consider them in the presentation of their party platform to appeal to more voters (Tichenor & Fuerstman, 2008). An example of this would be the modern Green Party which emphasizes environmental issues. Before the emergence of this party, environmental issues were not nearly as important of a topic to the major parties as they are today. In edition to affecting the platforms of the major parties, minor parties also, quite often affect the political