Third rail (politics)

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Third rails used to power trains usually result in the death by electrocution of anyone who comes into direct contact with them. WMATA third rail at West Falls Church.jpg
Third rails used to power trains usually result in the death by electrocution of anyone who comes into direct contact with them.

The third rail of a nation's politics is a metaphor for any issue so controversial that it is "charged" and "untouchable" to the extent that any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject will invariably suffer politically. The metaphor comes from the high-voltage third rail in some electric railway systems.

Contents

Touching a third rail can result in electrocution, so usage of the metaphor in political situations relates to the risk of "political suicide" that a person would face by raising certain taboo subjects or having points of view that are either censored, shunned or considered highly controversial or offensive to advocate or even mention.

It is most commonly used in North America. Though commonly attributed to Tip O'Neill, [1] Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, it seems to have been coined by O'Neill aide Kirk O'Donnell in 1982 in reference to Social Security. [2] [3]

American examples of usage

A wide range of issues might be claimed detrimental to politicians tackling them, but those below have all been explicitly described using the "third rail" metaphor:

Outside the U.S.

Argentina

Australia

Canada

Denmark

Germany

India

Republic of Ireland

United Kingdom

China

Singapore

The term OB marker ("out of bounds marker", a golf term)[ citation needed ] is widely used in Singapore for forbidden topics, such as:

Serbia

See also

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References

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  9. Koehler, Robert (July 4, 2014). "Going Deep: Race and the Third Rail". HuffPost .
  10. Daring to Touch the Third Rail, Robert Koehler, Newsweek, 01/19/08, "Obama has avoided being pigeonholed as the "black candidate" and has mostly steered clear of talking about race on the campaign trail (at least until his recent fracas with Hillary Clinton over whether she besmirched King's legacy by noting President Lyndon Johnson's role in the Civil Rights Act). But Michelle hasn't backed away from discussing her experiences of race and prejudice."
  11. Short-Circuiting the New Third Rail in Politics, July 20, 2012, Suzanne Fields, RealClearPolitics, "Race has become the third rail of American politics. Touch it, and you die. It's the rail some of our angriest Democrats want to ride Mitt Romney and the Republicans out of town on."
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  16. New York Times. Desegregation Plan: Eliminate All Gifted Programs in New York. August 26, 2019.
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  22. Wilson, Gary (February 18, 2020). "Third Rail Proposal: Selling Great Lakes water proposed to lower lake levels". Great Lakes Now. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  23. Taub, Amanda (May 25, 2022). "In the U.S., Backlash to Civil Rights Era Made Guns a Political Third Rail". The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
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  25. "Parkland anniversary highlights how Democrats have shifted on guns". PBS NewsHour. Associated Press. February 12, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  26. "An experienced Jerry Brown vows to build on what he's already done". Los Angeles Times. October 19, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  27. Smith, Alex (November 30, 2021). "The Coming "Meat Vortex"". Breakthrough Institute . Retrieved January 24, 2023. Meat, in short, may well be the third rail of climate politics.
  28. "Montana GOP Senate Candidate Embraces a Seriously Toxic Position". October 18, 2023.
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  34. "Autobahn unlimited: Saying speed limit to a German is like talking gun control in the US". www.handelsblatt.com. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
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  44. Lent, Adam (June 9, 2017). "Political uncertainty must not mean backsliding on social care reform". New Local Government Network. Retrieved October 5, 2018. The assumption could well emerge that social care has proved to be a 'third rail' in politics killing anyone who touches it.
  45. "After Scotland's No, the UK's Devolution Revolution". Fisher Investments . September 22, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2018. The West Lothian question has been the third rail of UK politics for nearly 20 years
  46. Taylor, Paul (July 12, 2022). "Johnson's exit won't change Brexit". Politico . Retrieved January 24, 2023. Relations with the EU will remain the third rail of U.K. politics.
  47. Milligan, Ellen (November 21, 2022). "UK Is Starting to Have Second Thoughts About Brexit". Bloomberg News . Retrieved January 24, 2023. The gloomy prognosis has re-opened the debate over Brexit, previously the deadly third rail of Conservative Party politics...
  48. Zagoria, Adam (October 7, 2019). "NBA Takes 'Unprincipled' And 'Cowardly' Stance On China And Hong Kong". Forbes. Retrieved October 7, 2019.