Posted on 08/14/2004 4:03:42 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR
I just send in my Nader petitions, the signers were conservatives. Conservatives understand divide and conquer, which is why I suspect this thread won't last. I could be wrong, I have been before. It's rare but it happens.
Dont blame me, I voted for Kodo.
Peroutka has released a point paper, which I read, that called the Iraq war "immoral" and "unconstitutional."
That's where he and the CP lost my vote this year. That paper proved the CP isn't a serious option for November.
I realized then that this was an ego trip for Philips. These guys know they don't have a prayer of winning. They're all a bunch of kooks. If they really wanted to impact change, they would give us the opportunity to vote for them in a Republican primary.
Vote for me as UNQUESTIONED OVERLORD of the DARKNESS, and I shall CRUSH the HUMANS and elevate feline kind to their RIGHTFUL PLACE!
What?
You mean this is a forum of humans and NOT the High Alien Overlord Council?
Oops..
Nevermind then.
1. Is there any harm in voting third party in states that are not in play?
2. Is there any harm in going on the Internet and bashing President Bush?
Well, it's just my opinion, but I think anyone who uses the excuse that because he lives in a non-battleground state that he is free to bash Bush on the Internet is a scumbag. That's just my humble opinion.
the guy in the pic, on the website, looks like Art Bell... fitting isnt it...
nothing more needs to be said...
From a post on my article in the smoky backroom titled
Are Libertarians and other third parties futile?:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1191613/posts
I ask why waste a protest vote? When you vote away from Republicans, they go left to attract voters. Democrats go center-right, at least rhetorically, as in Clinton. At least when you have a place at the table you can be heard, a little.
I just don't believe 3rd parties will ever make much of a difference until one of the mainline parties splits or implodes.
The US is moving rightward and shows no sign of correcting the course. The democrats, rather than adopt their opposition's issues as their own and thus keep a hand in the game, are increasingly sidelined while Bush adopts their issues and governs like a deficit addicted free spending democrat. The democrats react by entrenching in their leftist ideology, even though the country increasingly disavows the welfare state. As a result, a breach is opening up where a moderate left party should be.
The Constitution party isn't able to squeeze into this slot because they are to the right of the Republicans and, if the rightward trend continues, stand to be overtaken and assimilated.
Libertarians are the likely party to expand into the developing left-of-center vacuum. However, the party planks of open borders in an era of unchecked illegal immigration and isolationism when fighting a global enemy are deal breakers. The Republican Liberty Caucus is merely a sop from the RNC to naive libertarians who think they are having any influence in setting policy while giving up their votes. As it is now, conservative libertarians are as blacks are to democrats -- taken for granted and ignored. Inasmuch as Republicans show no interest in incorporating LP policies into government, there is no point in the LP being their vote pool. Small 'l' libertarianism is the nascent replacement for the Democratic party. If the next election results in continued Republican dominance of federal and state power, the desperate demos may begin a slow motion implosion.
The US is moving rightward and shows no sign of correcting the course.
What indications do you see that convince you this is true as a permanent trend?
Bush adopts their issues and governs like a deficit addicted free spending democrat.
But doesn't having the party leadership do this tend to move the Republicans leftward?
As a result, a breach is opening up where a moderate left party should be.
What about RINOs, are they misplaced moderate leftists, and wouldn't they jump ship to a more influential moderate left party making 'Pubs weaker as a result?
Small 'l' libertarianism is the nascent replacement for the Democratic party.
Well it would be better than Green Party-lite which is what it is now. I wonder if a Scoop Jackson wing could ever reform in a libertarian Democrat party. It would be nice to have loyal hawkish center-right opposition, rather than McGovernized socialists.
As a continuing trend, see the FCC's terrorizing of broadcast media, Bush's pressure for religious funding, the move towards charter schools, in-home schooling becoming more popular, the locking in of low tax rates, Ashcroft's ability to traduce the Tenth Amendment at will with little public outcry, and the continued freefall of organized labor. Not to mention loosening of gun laws such as concealed carry spreading, and the outright open carry in Virginia.
The phenomenon of Fox News with more viewers than other cable news networks combined is part of cable's draining of viewers from the liberal broadcast networks into botique channels of narrow interest that is not necessarily as leftist as the big 3.
Liberal print media is losing its gateway to the internet, where news is out before it can be massaged and spun. Circulation of the NYT is dropping by the amount it is going up at the conservative New York Post and the Daily News, and if the experience of Newsday and the Chicago Tribune (?) are any indication, the liberal circulation figures are inflated as it is, meaning they are losing more readers than they will admit.
The experience of CBS being forced by viewers to dump the Ronald Reagan smear job alongside the humiliation of the Dixie Chicks, Linda Ronstadt, and Don Henley is an indication that the silent majority is no longer silent, and is making itself felt. This does not seem to be a temporary condition.
But doesn't having the party leadership do this tend to move the Republicans leftward?
Not necessarily. It means they no longer feel the need to be fiscally responsible which means there are no qualms in running up deficits while enacting their agenda. The agenda hasn't moved leftward, with notable exceptions such as funding the NEH and the CPB. The constraints are off in achieving their goals, even if it means mortgaging the future to buy the silence of the squeaky wheels.
What about RINOs, are they misplaced moderate leftists, and wouldn't they jump ship to a more influential moderate left party making 'Pubs weaker as a result?
Yup. There aren't enough libertarians to do it alone, and there's only one Ron Paul. But there are lots of itchy Rinos willing to abandon an intrusive socially conservative republican party.
I wonder if a Scoop Jackson wing could ever reform in a libertarian Democrat party.
Yes. Fiscal conservatives sufficiently agitated by federal intrusion into schools and construing the commerce clause to regulate every aspect of our lives can be counted on to support a replacement for the Democrats.
Wow! Here's to the future it should prove interesting if you are right.
And that ain't necessarily a good thing(?)
This is the first time that I've heard that 3% is "awfully big."
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