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.
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.
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:
The
Sedition Act makes it illegal to "promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different races or classes of the population".[citation needed]
^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."
^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."
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.
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.
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:
The
Sedition Act makes it illegal to "promote feelings of ill-will or hostility between different races or classes of the population".[citation needed]
^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."
^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."