More than five years ago, when I was first asked to write for Colorado Politics, my kindly editor stated, as I remember it, that he wanted me for my wit, good looks, political background and that I was a former poli sci professor at the Air Force Academy (Editor: I remember it quite differently, but go on…).

And few things tend to kick me into “professor mode” quicker than the details and history of our political process. I love minutiae and particulars, and I love learning about how things work. Which is why a recent CoPo story caught my eye.

It seems we have a brand new official political party in Colorado. After turning in more than the minimum required number of signatures, the No Labels Colorado Party has arrived officially on the scene, after the Secretary of State’s Office formally validated 11,821 of the more than 18,000 signatures submitted. You always need to get a bunch more signatures than the minimum, because sometimes 6,179 or-so people will sign when they are not actually a registered voter. Or they put down a fake name just to get away from the person gathering signatures, and such. But the No Label Colorado folks got the job done.

So, what does that mean, really?

Not too much… At least not for a while…

The NLC party now becomes one of six minor parties in the Centennial State, joining  the American Constitution Party, Approval Voting Party, Green Party of Colorado, the Libertarian Party of Colorado and the Unity Party of Colorado as officially recognized. I had not heard of the Approval Voting Party before, so a quick trip to their website educated me. They are apparently a single-issue organization, dedicated to changing how we vote to a ranked system, where you get to vote for more than one person, in order of preference. There are a number of locales around the nation experimenting with that system, which is argued to be fairer and more balanced, rather than the winner-take-all system we have had for the past 233 years or so.

Which actually brings me back to the NLC party, and all the minor parties. You all know, dear readers, of the various systems of government around the world. You likely also know that our presidential system is quite unusual around the globe. Most countries use a parliamentary system, or a version of it, in which the legislative branch creates the executive branch from within itself. The prime minister of England, for example, is the equivalent of a U.S. member of Congress, with a home district. The current PM, Rishi Sunak, represents a constituency in North Yorkshire.

And you may have also noticed that parliamentary systems tend to have lots more political parties than we do in the U.S.. England has three “major” parties. There are dozens in Israel, with five major parties and lots of smaller ones.

These parliamentary systems elect their members differently than we do. In our system for, say, a congressional seat in Colorado, the person who gets the most votes becomes the member of Congress, and the person who finished second (like I did back in 2008) gets nothing. Any minor third party is even less consequential. Back when I ran there was also a guy from the Constitution Party running, with one issue position: he was going to serve his entire term out of an office in Baghdad to end the Iraq war. He didn’t get too many votes. Why? Because in a winner-take-all system, finishing first is all that matters, and being part of one of two major parties gives you the best chance to win.

That is why in our system, we’ve seen parties ebb and flow, but a third party never really has much of a chance. That is why our parties have transformed rather than being replaced. The Whigs of the 19th century, for example, died out and became the Republicans. Lincoln started off as a Whig and became a GOPer when that transformation took place.

But in a non-winner-take-all system, like Israel, minor parties can, and do, get a few folks elected to the Knesset (their legislative body). Get 3% of the vote? You can get 3% of the seats. It’s not quite that simple, but that’s the basic idea.

In such systems, minor parties can become king-makers, if no major party can command a majority of the body. Thus, again in Israel, some small ultra-religious parties end up with disproportionate power, as a major party might need a handful of votes to get a majority, a handful that can be supplied by the aforementioned minor party, who are then owed important roles in the new government – often in the form of key ministerial appointments.

But in the U.S., almost everywhere, being in a third party is more of a statement of political passion than it is a strategy to win elections. It is certainly true that on some local levels, a third-party candidate might squeak through, but while we have a few independents in our congress, we don’t have any third-party folks. The last one that comes to mind is James Buckley, a one-term U.S. Senator from New York, who was elected as a Conservative Party member back in the early 1970s.

So what is the goal of the brand-new party in Colorado? Well, according to their website, the No Labels folks are all about declaring: “This moment demands American leaders and citizens alike declare their freedom from the anger and divisiveness that are ruining our politics and most importantly, our country. A United Front.” They seem to be trying to carve out the moderate center of the political spectrum, which is actually appealing.

Will they be able to peel off enough GOPers and Dems to become an actual force in Colorado politics? Though claiming to be nonpartisan centrists, back in 2014 they supported Cory Gardner over Mark Udall, which would seem to contradict the centrist part, as few were more centrist than Udall, and Gardner became quite the Trumper. So, I have my doubts.

So, with my poli sci professor’s hat firmly on my head, I look forward to seeing what the NLC folks try to do. Will they replace parts of the GOP and the Dems, as the Whigs were replaced? Only time will tell.

Stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.