Posted on 03/30/2006 1:22:54 PM PST by Apolitical
Please, do not stop voting.
If you silence yourself, no one will hear your opinion. Even if you vote for the Green party or the Natural Law flakes as a protest, a protest vote REGISTERS with the two-party cartel. They realize people are pissed at them. And they try to get those votes back again by changing their politics at least somewhat.
I am not a huge fan of using the law to establish a socially conservative republic, hence the libertarian (should be a small "L," but ain't) in my freeper handle. But should you disagree with the GOP and Rats, at least consider a third-party protest for the LP or, if you're more the social conservative than I, the Constitution Party. Third parties may be full of flakes and nuts. But voting costs you next to nothing, and a protest vote is worth something.
Before the deluge starts, I am inclined and have been inclined to vote GOP in nearly every election. But even if I'm disgusted with the candidate field, I'll still show up and say so by voting against the crappiest ones.
"Fair question. The hypothetical GOP candidate you describe in favor of gun control, aff action, open borders, usurpation of state powers, hideous spending . . . . sounds a lot like President Bush, aside from his courage in the face of rat attacks over the war on terror."
---Really? 8^) Funny how we both thought that after reading it--I state truthfully that I didn't put that list in place thinking about the President's divergence from the conservative wing of the party.
"I think Nixon once remarked that in politics one is often faced with two smelly options, a pile of sh!t in each hand. The least smelly is the choice. Anyway,the thought of the Hildebeast, Gore or Kerry or some other leftist thumbsucker in the white house is too frightening to consider, even if the alternative is a not very conservative Republican. That said, it would not be easy to pull the lever for say, McCain in 2008. But I would eventually pull the lever."
---I draw the line at voting for insane egomaniacs. And I think McCain is one of those. So I won't be voting for him. Ever.
---I might vote for a not-so-conservative who I trusted on some of those key issues enumerated above. But I've done that so long it's very difficult to pull the lever enthusiastically and hope for progress. And I think I've had my last experience of voting for a pile of sh!t. I won't pull a lever again for a candidate who doesn't at least fit the bill on my number one concern--and my primary concern for the next election, right now, is defending our national sovereignty, through the defeat of the Islamist AND illegal hordes.
And as to your response to Protagoras that no third party has elected a president, you have forgotten your history. The GOP was a third party once, as were the Whigs and the Know-Nothings that were nationally prominent at different times in our history. Parties rise and fall with the tide. Principled opposition, however, does not.
The *real* answer is in congress. Move the House and Senate towards conservatism and we win.
Of course, that cannot be done overnight, so you have the impatient conservatives throw up their hands and decide to vote third party.
That will not work. Conservatives need to continue taking over the Republican Party. We need to take positions of power within the party and we need to start running for office against RINOs.
Again, this will not happen overnight....so you will still have those that do not understand politics throwing their hands up and condemning the entire system.
Remember, politics is a game with no end.
I agree that conservatives must work harder to take over the GOP. The heck of it is, conservatism works! Unless a candidate is running for an inner city congressional seat, conservatism will get one elected. Unlike democrats who must couch and shadow dance their opinions, open and honest conservatism is appealing to the vast majority of Americans.
"The perfect is the enemy of the good. Vote libertarian and elect a rat, it is as simple as that."
If the nominees were always as clearcut as GOP=good and LP/Constitution=perfect and Rat=hideous, you'd be correct. The problem is that if McCain is the nominee, the GOP=awful. Not sure I see much point in voting for the GOP to elect awful over perfect. "Vote Trotsky--he's no stick in the mud!"
I'll say it again: if I'm happy with the GOP nominee, and I expect to be, I'll vote for `em. But I'm not voting for a President who's soft on American sovereignty. We're not a high-end subdivision of global trade, inc. We're a country, with real borders and real security issues. We can't lock up at night and put a rent-a-cop on the front stoop.
I will vote accordingly.
So why even consider Libertarian? The L party believes in quasi open borders and a isolationist foreign policy. Sheesh.
"So why even consider Libertarian? The L party believes in quasi open borders and a isolationist foreign policy. Sheesh."
Who said you should? Who said I was going to? I'm certainly not going to in the next election! I have only in the past advocated voting for the LP where GOP congressmen have gone unopposed. But I will admit I'd prefer people voted LP over RINO. RINOs hurt the GOP, no matter how many people claim 'they vote with us on the important stuff,' because they don't vote with us on judges and don't vote with us on policy--and that's the important stuff. As far as I can see, the only time they consistently vote with us is on leadership, and then only so they can get into power as RINO committee chairmen and f up conservative policy aims.
Buzzz, go put on your well deserved dunce cap, sit behind the chalk board and review history. Write 100 times on the board, I flunked history.<
Then, take a long look at a party that can't get enough people to vote for it and put the blame where it belongs, on the party that lost. They are to blame, no one else. Whining like a bay will never get you elected. Good ideas by credible people will, nothing else.
name one
" In 1856, the Republicans became a national party when John C. Fremont was nominated for President under the slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Fremont." Even though they were considered a "third party" because the Democrats and Whigs represented the two-party system at the time, Fremont received 33% of the vote. Four years later, Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican to win the White House.
Republican Party The Republican party was founded in 1854 by a group of renegade Democrats, Whigs, and political independents who opposed the expansion of slavery into new U.S. territories and states. What began as a single-issue, independent party became a major political force in the United States. Six years after the new party was formed, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won the U.S. presidential election.
Lincoln's victory in 1860 signaled the demise of the Whig party and the ascendance of Republican politics.
Encyclopedia Americana: Republican PartyNevertheless, the Republican Party was the first and thus far the only third party in American history to succeed in becoming one of the two major parties. ... ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0331130-00& templatename=/article/artic... - 46k - Cached - Similar pages
Though rare, American history includes the rise and triumph of third parties, the Republican Party being the most significant example.
"Republicans are the party that says that government doesn't work. And then they get elected and prove it." - PJ O'Rourke
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