For all you 3rd Party Zealots

[Great-Kazoo]

A 3rd party candidate has an uphill battle. Not so much from lack of exposure, but lack of exposure (i know confusing)
The 3rd party candidate gets the word out only to be stiffled by the media and the Dems & GOP. The 08 election had more than 2 people running, however both D&R did everything possible to have said entities denied stage time during debates. The media (surprise) went along with this farce, thus one more obstacle in the way of a 3rd party. Unless a 3rd party can get a good buzz on the web they will face an up hill battle from D&R and any media circus. After all who wants their apple cart turned over by a legit person from outside the 2 party system.

Another thing is a person running for office spends more time & money discrediting an opponent than actually getting a message out there.
Myself, i feel it's time to vote from the roof top in a manner of speaking.

[Badger]

As a matter of fact, I've yet to find a perfect candidate and I've been voting since 1978. And I have voted 3rd party (Perot)...big mistake and valuable and expensive lesson learned. I won't make that mistake again.

So rather than getting off your ass like some of the rest of us, you'll sit there and vote for the lesser of two turds? Got it.... great thinking there. Personally I'd recommend keeping cranium external to colon, and thinking a little outside the realm of possibility into probability..... a.k.a. turn the tables to the favor of the American voting public. (Legal, etc., but that's a whole different discussion...)

The 2 party system that we vote with has been a bullshit failed system for many years than any of us in here have been alive to see. Granted this term we're all screwed because yet again we're stuck with the decision "Shall there be a Democrat or Republican in the White House?", because at this point, voting 3rd party WILL be just like voting for Perot back in the day.

We as a country need to wake the hell up and realize that NEITHER a Democratic or Republican party will aid us as a UNITED COUNTRY. "A country that's divided surely will not stand".... and ironically that's the very thing we have. Dems, or Reps, Cons or Libs, Right or Left........ "divided".

Maybe one day we'll truly be able to elect a president based on that individual's own platform..... No party, no affiliation, no special interest group. Part of it starts with sharing this mindset with those closest to us, who then share it with others and so on. A pipe dream? Maybe, but for the sake of this country, let's hope not.

As far as this election goes, yes, any other vote than Romney, may very well be a vote for Odouchebama. But never lose track that something better can exist, it simply has to be decided that what we have now, isn't working.


Badger

[Aloha_Shooter]

You can lay all the hypotheticals you want about a third party candidate winning and getting back to the Constitution. I've got the real world example of the Perotistas giving Slick Willy the election not once but twice. I liked Perot up until he handed the election to the same guy that gave us the AWB and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I haven't liked Souter but he's far less dangerous than Ginsburg.

George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush both had their flaws but neither was as bad as the cretin currently occupying the Oval Office by a long shot.

[Great-Kazoo]

I'm curious with all the reply's exactly when you all first voted? For me it was 74.
Just kind of wondering what the age spectrum is.

[buffalobo]

You guys keep saying that, "Your mentality hasn't gotten us anywhere." How about instead of pointing fingers and playing the blame game you give a little insight, in your opinion, as to how we're going to spread the word and convince the rest. Because by now I think you guys have said it til you're blue in the face and we totally get it, we would love to end the two party system and get a 3rd party candidate elected to help make the changes needed, but I get the impression is that YOU DON'T GET IT- we do, it's not like if we all (members here I mean) vote for a 3rd party they're going to somehow, miraculously, get elected. You have to change a lot of minds away from this thinking, and that cannot happen swiftly, it for sure won't happen this month, this year, hell, I seriously doubt it will happen this DECADE because let's face it, people are stubborn (if you want proof talk to a Democrat, they're pretty stupid and stubborn and never ever ever listen to the other side of the table). You can't change the world overnight, and you're constant (again, not YOU specifically, but people who spout that exact same rhetoric) harping on this "end the two party system, stop with the lesser of two evils crap, you're not helping, blah blah blah" is tired and played out. I don't mean this as an insult to you, but regardless of us getting it or not it's not "us" you need to worry about and berate, it's EVERYONE ELSE that you need to try to convince. For us to recognize the way things are because of everyone else doesn't make it so that we're holding back the 3rd party, it makes it so that we don't waste our vote on someone with a 0.000% chance of getting elected into office in November. Remember, every person who should be voting for Romney that doesn't is taking away a vote from him, and thus giving the upper hand to the Marxist camp of Hussein Obamallama-ding-dong and securing his re-election. Keep that in mind when you hit the voting booth in a few months, please, for the sake of our children and their future.

You spread the word by talking to people, one at a time. Of course it will take a long time to enlighten enough people to make a difference. But if you never start you will never finish. While doing the slow work of educating people you take the lead in voting for quality, constitution adherent candidates. If a third party(or fourth or fifth) is to ever garner enough votes(I don't think he needs to win, just be a threat to win) to start the break of the two party strangle hold, then you must be williing to vote for him when he has no chance to win, you must be willing to vote for principle.

At some point the transition from no chance to slight chance will happen. When it does then momentum will start to build. As the momentum starts to build the band wagon jumpers(aka the masses too ignorant, lazy or dependent to do other than follow the herd) will start to move that direction and the movement will be impossible to put down.

It begins with being willing to walk the long hard path of voting for principle.

[buffalobo]

You can lay all the hypotheticals you want about a third party candidate winning and getting back to the Constitution. I've got the real world example of the Perotistas giving Slick Willy the election not once but twice. I liked Perot up until he handed the election to the same guy that gave us the AWB and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I haven't liked Souter but he's far less dangerous than Ginsburg.

George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush both had their flaws but neither was as bad as the cretin currently occupying the Oval Office by a long shot.

How many lesser turds(election cycles) does it take to get a turd that doesn't smell? There have been what, four election cycles since Perot? Do the turds smell any better yet?

IMO they smell worse and we have lost ground.

[Eow]

George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush both had their flaws but neither was as bad as the cretin currently occupying the Oval Office by a long shot.

You are entitled to your opinion of course, but I don't see much difference at all between Bush and Obama, other than their rhetoric. Both agree on:

• Massive federal spending on medical care (Bush rolled out the biggest entitlement since Lyndon Johnson with his prescription drug benefit plan)
• Massive bailouts for banks
• Massive expansion of federal government (look at DHS)
• Raising the debt cap routinely
• Guantanamo Bay
• Running the Iraq war (Obama followed Bush's plan to pull out)
• Patriot Act
• Torturing/Killing even American citizens without any judicial review (Bush tortured, Obama just kills them with aerial drones)
• Massive expansion of Presidential power through record amounts of Executive Orders
• Bush tax cuts
• Spending deficits that dwarf their predecessors

They seem pretty damn similar to me, why would you perpetuate that? Supreme Court picks? You mean like Bush's appointment of Roberts who wrote the opinion approving Obamacare with the four liberal judges?


When this country goes to hell from these Republocrats being in charge, anyone who votes for them has only himself to look at when asking how we got into this mess. Vote the lesser of two evils?



Those of you who say you are realists, think about this: At the ballot box, it doesn't matter who you vote for, your one vote won't make the difference. I will vote my conscience, probably for the former two-time Republican governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson. If everyone voted their conscience we would be a lot better off.

[TEAMRICO]

Yaaaaaawn.
If I don't see MY CONSIENCE on the ballot form should I just pen it in?



Vote the way you want. Live with the fact you made zero difference.
You won't sway many with your decision.
Thanks anyways.
Bush aint running.........
Just saying.

[Rucker61]

• Massive expansion of Presidential power through record amounts of Executive Orders

For a point of order, I don't think that this claim necessarily holds water, at least for the second half. Here's a listing of issued Presidential Orders:

http://www.archives.gov/federal-regi...sposition.html

Based on the current rate, Obama appears to be on pace to end up around 150 or so for a single term. Since the end of WWII, we've had six greater than a single term (to include Nixon) issue more than 300 Orders during their Administration. Truman tops the list with 898, and Ike is next with 482. Reagan, Clinton, Nixon and Johnson follow in the 300+ club.

[Bailey Guns]

So rather than getting off your ass like some of the rest of us, you'll sit there and vote for the lesser of two turds? Got it.... great thinking there. Personally I'd recommend keeping cranium external to colon, and thinking a little outside the realm of possibility into probability..... a.k.a. turn the tables to the favor of the American voting public. (Legal, etc., but that's a whole different discussion...)

The 2 party system that we vote with has been a bullshit failed system for many years than any of us in here have been alive to see. Granted this term we're all screwed because yet again we're stuck with the decision "Shall there be a Democrat or Republican in the White House?", because at this point, voting 3rd party WILL be just like voting for Perot back in the day.

We as a country need to wake the hell up and realize that NEITHER a Democratic or Republican party will aid us as a UNITED COUNTRY. "A country that's divided surely will not stand".... and ironically that's the very thing we have. Dems, or Reps, Cons or Libs, Right or Left........ "divided".

Maybe one day we'll truly be able to elect a president based on that individual's own platform..... No party, no affiliation, no special interest group. Part of it starts with sharing this mindset with those closest to us, who then share it with others and so on. A pipe dream? Maybe, but for the sake of this country, let's hope not.

As far as this election goes, yes, any other vote than Romney, may very well be a vote for Odouchebama. But never lose track that something better can exist, it simply has to be decided that what we have now, isn't working.


Badger

Oh, really? Well what the fuck are you doing that's so life-altering that the rest of us should listen to you...much less follow your advice?

And I have news for you. I'm plenty active politically and I'm a vocal advocate for what I believe in. I'm so sick and tired of all the 3rd party bullshit that I could just scream. I don't have 100 years to fix the system. I have to work with what I have for the remaining 20 to 30 years of my life. And right now, what I have, is the 2 party system. So you can peddle your 3rd party snake oil all you want. Your gonna find very few buyers.

Furthermore, you're preaching to the segment of the population (those that love freedom and believe in the constitution) who is most likely to listen to you. And you're not even convincing to most of us. What do you think the true liberals/lefties think when they read your bullshit? I guarantee you you're not convincing to many of them, either.

Bottom line is, take your 3rd party fairytales and kiss my ass. And after all your hardass tough guy posturing what have you come up with? Oh, yeah...that's right. What many of us have been saying all along. A vote for anyone other than the Republican nominee is basically a vote for Romney.

So much for all your preaching. But I think I'll stick to the church of common sense. And, I will vote my conscience. I will vote for the candidate I think best represents what I believe in, even if that candidate isn't perfect. I will vote for the candidate that I think will do the best job...even if it's not a perfect job. I will make every possible effort to convince others that my decision is the right decision for this election and will encourage them to vote in a like manner, for the same candidate. I will not vote for some pie-in-the-sky, minor player. Especially this year...and probably not next time either.

Fuckin' deal with it.