Posted on 10/31/2009 4:46:45 AM PDT by Halfmanhalfamazing
He ran as a 3rd party candidate period.
Third parties lose out when three conditions apply.
First, when they are running beyond their means. This usually means that they run an egotistical presidential candidate first, without having any lower seats to back them up. If they stick to local politics first, they get legs.
Second, they insist on their rigidly holding onto their entire platform, instead of running on the most popular parts of their platform, where they and the public agree. Ironically, this is not “selling out”, as they are not dropping what they believe in, just emphasizing what both they and the voters like.
An axiom to this second rule is to keep it simple. The Contract With America was simple, clear, and popular. Voters love clarity, core values, and straight talk, even if they are not wholly behind the ideas.
Third, is that in many States and at the federal level, laws have been passed to exclude or minimize third party success. So third parties have to get in and litigate long before the election, just to have a fair playing field.
We need a second one.
Sorry, but this is an example of a third party, and in NY-23, as of today, that party’s name is “Republican.”
The new reigning “first” party is Independent, Principled, Conservatism.
I guess if the GOP wants to survive and compete in its current form it is going to have to learn how to beat out the other major liberal party.
Otherwise, it’s going to have to rethink and redo everything, or die.
:)
However, the establishment GOP has largely been adamant about shoving Scuzzy down the throats of the base. They could have realized it was mistake to pick her, but failed (she isn't just hyper-liberal, she's corrupt as well).
True to form, the GOP-uber-alles types blame everyone but the GOP establishment for the desire of conservatives to have a third party. Do you think the vast majority of conservatives expressing such an opinion see such as anything but a last resort?
Republicans arent showng me much these days.
I am not a political expert, but I can say this. I am voting for Copnservatives from now on. If the republican party leaders dont pick Conservative candidates I will not vote for them.
I would not vote for Scuzzyflavor if she did win a Republican primary. She does not represent what I want. I will not vote for Romney or Hucakabee.
Nothing has really changed. The GOP threw their own candidate under the bus and went with a 3rd party candidate who is winning. It was a weasel move that could have been avoided altogether by going with a conservative candidate in the first place.
In the end, nothing has changed. GOP leadership is still a disaster and I’m not hearing any calls for changes.
The folks running the Pubbie Party appear to have forgotten their party’s own history...
You are not going to get many who agree with you here.
Most would rather burn down the barn to save the farm.
Look for a rash of third party candidates in 2010 to steal just enough votes to get the D elected.
I make my fight in the Primaries.
Senator Burr (R-NC) is at under 40% right now and I’ll be supporting and R that runs against him - if one does.
Everyone talks about how NC is “BLUE” now. Obama won NC with less than 25,000 votes. Over 25,000 voted for Barr in NC. Barr had no chance of winning but over 25,000 voted for him so they could feel good come Wednesday morning.
Save the party. Vote for its candidate.
==
That says the party is more important than what it stands for.
We saw that in 2008, with renegade McCain who stood for little and was defeated by 2-to-1 in electoral votes.
The Republican leadership like the status quo.
Look how surprised they are whenever the ‘natives’ get restless. See the strained, shocked look on Boehner’s face when the Tea Party hundreds of thousands showed up in Washington. See the strained, shocked look on Gingrich’s face when his NY-23 endorsement is now running in 3rd place.
The Republican leadership is their own self-interest group and, as Gingrich said about the NY-23 race, to outsiders, ‘stay out; it’s none of your business.’
Most 3rd party candidates are single-issue candidates and their ‘party’ has base of a few like-minded, single-issue supporters.
You’re absolutely right about that: The RNCC waited until it was obvious that Hoffman was an actual contender, according to the current numbers, THEN they embraced him.
That is the classic ‘weasel move’ , and that is symbolic of SO much that is wrong with the GOP.
NO ONE should forget just what their fudge-brained cop-out decision was at the beginning, with the lame endorsement of Dede Scozzafava, just as no one should forget what the Zero Administration WANTS to do , IS TRYING to do-—take them both at their word. The fact is, there is too much inbuilt and growing resistance among voters not entranced by Partisan Party politics to allow ALL of the Authoritarian Zero Agenda, to make us open wide and allow all this to be shoved down our throats, whether from the ‘GOP’ or the Zero Administration. Having said all that, there already exists on this thread some very incisive and interesting ideas on the wisdom or lack of it in trying to promulgate the idea of a Third Party, or trying to deal in pragmatic terms with the realities of the existing Republican Party, or (and this is “the rub”) recognizing that the existing GOP may just be stuck in their bad habits to such an extent that the time-frame necessary for them to pull out of those habits of accomodation is just too long and unpredictable for any of us to want to abide watching that process and ‘hoping for the best’. I would like to see a thread which tackles IN DEPTH the whole idea of what it would take to bring this major party, the GOP, to actual conservative principles , and , beyond that, how to illuminate the real issues and bring the carefully dumbed-down electorate over to our side.
This is not an impossible task, just a vexing one.
This is the beginning of a movement which has the potential to bring America back from the abyss, and that can ONLY be done by assessing th situation for what it is, and FIRST, taking as our PRIMARY goal , to resist, mock,and discredit
this demagogic Administration, which SO FAR, seems to have gotten away with SO MUCH MORE that even I, ultimate cynic from the age of 14, thought they’d EVER be able to get away with.
Third Parties have had enormous effects on American politics. *Every* 3rd party surge has been followed by one of the 2 major parties adopting its platform.
[Doesn’t matter]
Yeah it does matter and the rino left GOP should just go democrat.
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