Posted on 10/14/2013 5:31:00 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Since 2008, the idea of third parties started to gain more popularity across America. Principled conservatives and libertarians united against both the Democrat and Republican establishment started to explore methods of opposing Washington elites and the status quo.
The Tea Party had some success – and has continued most successfully – with primary campaigns which put principled people like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul in races as the Republican candidate. Once they won the GOP nomination, winning the general election was often pretty straightforward.
Yet many liberty activists have become disenchanted by the two party system and are turning to other options. Third parties have been the other option, employed for a variety of reasons both practical and ideological for many voters.
Third parties are becoming more popular in the U.S.
In 2012, both the Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party executed impressive grassroot campaigns to get their candidates on the ballot in most states. Both parties created milestones by debating each other on a national stage, the first ever third party presidential debate, moderated by Larry King. In this historic event, many Americans heard their message for the first time, while streaming live over the internet. Third parties around the country are gaining momentum because there is a growing outcry for real political change and people want more options than just a two party system in American.
In 2010, for instance, the American Constitution Party earned major party status in Colorado when its gubernatorial candidate earned more votes than GOP candidate Dan Maes. After Maes suffered a series of scandals, it became apparent he could not win, and he refused to drop out of the race. His primary opponent, Tom Tancredo, who had stayed on the ballot as the ACP candidate, quickly became more popular, and may have won if Maes hadn't siphoned just enough votes away to seal a victory for Democrat John Hickenlooper.
It's in this environment that the Ohio State Senate has passed this bill which would essentially eliminate all third party candidates from ballots. In the bill, only candidates from parties which earned 3% or more of the vote in a presidential election would be placed on the ballot; all other candidates would be write-in options. Newly qualifying parties must also submit petitions with at least 55,809 valid signatures.
The bill would, in many ways, solidify the placement of the Democrat and Republican parties at the center of American politics. Voters must look up and remember the names – something which should be simple but many people simply vote party line, and this will create a discrepancy amongst parties – and write-in candidates must apply to be counted. Write-in votes are also counted much more slowly than others, if at all, meaning they will not be discussed in the initial analysis of election results.
In addition, many third parties choose to build support by running in small, local campaigns before progressing to expensive and challenging presidential elections, but the Ohio bill only bases its judgment on presidential elections. Any third party candidate from a party which chooses to focus its limited time and money on winnable campaigns would be at an immediate disadvantage.
Many Americans who want limited government are dissatisfied with both parties. They feel there is no real opposition party that seeks a responsible fiscal policy. Establishment Republicans are threatened by the growing competition from tea party supporters and liberty activists who are say they may support a third-party challenger to incumbent moderate Republicans.
A statement from the Libertarian Party of Ohio's website says, "The bottom line is that the John Kasich Re-election Protection Act would disenfranchise every Ohio voter by taking away their right to vote for a candidate for governor other than a) John Kasich, a governor who has miserably failed the state of Ohio and betrayed millions of fiscal conservatives who expected him to follow Ohio law and oppose Obamacare, or b) the nominee of the other big-government party who is promising to double down on most of Kasich's failing policies."
If Ohio's proposed law passes, it will be yet another rule which helps the establishment maintain power. The Ohio bill will have a similar effect of creating different standards for different candidates in America's democratic process.
So destroy them.
The only reason why these assholes get away with this stuff is because people let them - because most of us aren’t interested or don’t have the time to figure out who is pulling the strings, where they live, who their children are, where they go to school, who their bankers are, what property they own, what their businesses are/own/etc.
Start finding out. If we start a campaign to expose and destroy these people, they’re going to either give up or try something that is going to raise the stakes until we’re no longer using the ballot box to address the issue.
Either way, it’s time we quit tolerating this stuff. It is time to cease being nice, polite and well-behaved. It is past time to let political hacks know there there will be consequences to their actions - consequences that will cost them personally, dearly and deeply.
This is nothing new. RepubliCrats have monopolized the ballots for decades. They control the legislatures in the states, and therefore control the rules for access to those ballots. Mustn’t have any REAL choices must we? Too confusing for the plebs.
Screw Hannity, he was/is part of the problem.
And by destroy them, I mean this:
We all saw what they’ve done (and continue to do) to Palin.
Well, double that, square it and multiply it by 10 - then start doing it to Karl Rove to make an example of someone.
Then take on some of the DC political consultants and back room wheeler-dealers.
I’m going to start with Liz Cheney’s husband.
The elites ae eliminating the mechanisms by which the people can control the government.
As I drove home today for 6 hours, 3 of them were filled by the Rush Limbaugh show. According to Rush, what you stated above "was the plan all along." "Take back the party."
Have to say, this whole "take back the party" mantra is getting old. I've been hearing it since 1992 and working on/off for such a thing to happen. The problem with "taking back the party" is the rules - notably SENIORITY rules are set against anyone who manages to unseat an incumbent or win in an open primary and general election.
Then there's the big money problem, where incumbents get all the money, and challengers have to rely in grassroots support and bare-thread campaigns to win.
Not to say it can't happen -- it just doesn't happen enough.
On the other hand, starting a Conservative or "Tea" Party will simply guarantee Democrat wins.
Can't we just hang 'em all (D's and R's alike) and start all over?? Seems to me a quick and dirty revolution complete with tar, rope, feathers and a hanging party is really what this country needs.
Say what????
Excuse me, Hannity is/was part of the problem???
I guess you probably think Limbaugh is the other part of the problem.
Maybe you should reevaluate your understanding of conservatism.
The first court challenge will knock that down.
Why not just one party? It works for China.
Oh, wait a second...
So does vote fraud.
Bingo! Thus, Obama didn't "go" :(
More proof that there is no difference between the Dems and GOP. Only a Low Info Voter thinks so
“More proof that there is no difference between the Dems and GOP”
Yeah, no difference between California and Idaho either/s
This makes twice in two days you attack a conservative for doing what he has always done. yesterday you attacked Rush, Levin, Savage also.
Newbie you seem to me to be a troll.
It is a waste of time for Conservatives to take over the GOP. That will never happen. The GOP is just as liberal as the DNC
Which is absolutely now in the cards and is the sole impetus for this bill.
Actually, upon further consideration, I’m no longer interested in “taking back the party,” or “taking over the party from the inside.”
I’m now just interested in exposing, humiliating, tormenting and impoverishing the people who claim to be speaking for me.
At this late date, I’m rapidly becoming one of those men who no longer gives a rat’s rear end about labels. They’re all fair game. D’s and R’s. Their families are fair game. Their children are fair game. As are their contributors, their fixers, greasers, consultants, interns, mistresses... anyone who does business with them, supports them in any material fashion.
It is time to use sunlight to disinfect the body politic. We should bring all of these cockroaches out into the light where people can get a good look at them.
Sounds like the USSR. You had a choice between communist and communist.
Screw Hannity, he was/is part of the problem.
____________
The elites are eliminating the mechanisms by which the people can control the government.
************
Any of the media is part of the problem.
Those who make the rules - the elites - are controlling the electoral process even more now.
Guess you forget how many of his “good friends” like ol Joe Liberman were on his show constantly. Or his buddy Marco Rubio whom he was touting as wanting to see run for President. Its easy to keep going as well. Hannity is a follower. He follows others acts and just now (again) coming late to the party, he has stuck his finger in the air and decided its safe to ridicule the pol’s in DC because America is finally outraged. He’s a tool. Get used to it.
Yes, Hannity is (maybe was, but I believe still is) a huge part of the problem.
He’s a parrot for the GOP-e, and he pretty much just spews whatever talking points the GOP has for the day. He gives unswerving and uncritical praise to clowns like Rove, who is a huge component of the problem with the GOP.
Limbaugh is a little better, but not much. He doesn’t want to step on the wrong toes - you can hear him catch himself and he backs off quickly when he realizes he’s sailing into waters where the GOP bigs might have a real issue.
After the 2008 debacle, if Hannity or Limbaugh had torn into the GOP-e consultants and hacks, and kept at it, they could have prevented the 2012 loss. But they didn’t. They play “inside baseball” for a little while, then they go back to their regularly scheduled pablum.
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