Conservatives revisit third party

AP ^ | Feb. 13, 2008 | By ERIC GORSKI, Religion Writer

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

You just continue to believe the way you want but I saw the light about the CP. I have NO respect for any of them. They’re a bunch of idealistic kooks trying to deceive others into financing their folly. At this point, I have contempt for them. I want my money back.

[fabian]

how? It would just split the republican vote.

[ellery]

Let’s clean up our own party to succeed and leave the tried and true third party failures to the Greens and Independents. -Wb

But how? Year after year many of us have been working to clean up our own party with our activism, our money and our votes, Yet a combination of the GOP establishment and some GOP voters keep giving us bad, big government, unconservative candidates. Now it's time to try something else.

[roamer_1]

how? It would just split the republican vote.

There is no path to victory in McCain anyway, so any other conservative option is a better option than we have now.

[ellery]

Only if it causes McCain to lose. If voters stay home and McCain wins, it will set in stone that those voters who sat it out, no matter what they call themselves are irrelevant and not needed.

Under any scenario, if McCain wins, the lesson will be that conservatives are irrelevant. As you say if conservatives stay home/vote third party and he wins, we will be considered irrelevant. But if conservatives end up voting for McCain, it will be the ultimate validation of the GOP's belief that conservatives can be taken for granted because we will stay on the plantation no matter what.

At least if we vote third party we have a chance to demonstrate that we have leverage...and that to win the party must groom and promote conservative candidates.

[fabian]

that’s wrong thinking...you don’t know that we cannot win with McCain. And with some concessions from him including a very strong vp pick, we should be ok. Don’t let your anger warp your vision.

[Robbin]

McCain can’t beat Obama if every conservative voted for him. He’s going to get beaten so badly that I’m afraid the RNC won’t learn it’s lesson. They will say “No republican could have won the election”

Voting for McCain is the worst thing conservatives can do right now.

[Robbin]

First you have to convince me that McCain can beat Obama.
I think McCain will loss in the largest landslide in American History.
Second, you have to convince me that McCain will cause less damage with both sides of the isle working with him than Obama will with Republicans fighting him tooth and nail.

3rd, doesn’t matter, I don’t vote for people that stab me in the back anyway, so don’t even try...

[Robbin]

Keys became a nonconservative we he started touting giving reparations to african americans for slavery.

I believe in reparations as well, but only to living people who were slaves and from living people who owned slaves...

[Robbin]

Please.. most of the members of the SC members were appointed by republicans. Even reagan appointed Suiter! Trying to be nice and look for a moderate. Now what makes you think McCain, died in the wool liberal is going to do better then all the other republicans.

As for the war on terror, it’s going to go on for decades! If we use that as an excuse to keep backing Rinos, we’ll have Rinos for the rest of my life time.

[Wagonboy]

...And become even smaller, more irrelevant, and less effective for the conservative movement. I’m glad our generals and admirals don’t fight with a third party mindset. -Wb

[ellery]

If the big govt spendaholic christianists want to leave the GOP then by all means please do so. Those of us who want the Federal govt to stay out of our pocketbooks won’t miss them in the least.

I'm a small-government conservative -- the GOP is leaving em precisely because under its control, the federal government has vastly increased its intrusion into my life and its reach into the pocketbooks of my children and future grandchildren.

[ellery]

...And become even smaller, more irrelevant, and less effective for the conservative movement. I’m glad our generals and admirals don’t fight with a third party mindset.

Actually, our best generals are of the mindset that the mission determines the coalition; the coalition doesn't determine the mission. The GOP has abandoned the conservative mission. Therefore, it's time to find a new coalition that will be more effective at achieving our goals.

[roamer_1]

that’s wrong thinking...you don’t know that we cannot win with McCain. And with some concessions from him including a very strong vp pick, we should be ok. Don’t let your anger warp your vision.

Anger has not warped my vision. there is no way to win with McCain.

[roamer_1]

Keys became a nonconservative we he started touting giving reparations to african americans for slavery.

He said no such thing.

[RobRoy]

>>IMO, this guy has it wrong. Huckabee and McCain both stink; not just McCain.<<\

Precicely.

America really IS at a turning point as much as it was in 1930. It is political, economical, cultural and geopolitical.

We are JUST ENTERING a perfect storm and nobody knows how we will come out the other side. As an ex-Republican, the only thing that will get me back into a voting booth is a viable third party. That is a figure of speech. I will still vote for initiatives, etc., but no democrat or republican will ever get my vote again. It is not about changing a party gone bad. It is about good people coming OUT of a party gone bad. And bad it has gone.

[TheBattman]

ndulge your silly side. Vote Third Party.

So I guess it is better to reject your values and vote for a liberal Republican... really sends a message that we want the party to move back to the Right, doesn't it...

Ugh...

[TBP]

That’s not what he said. He was talking about making people tax exempt. Hey, the less revenue the government gets (above a basic level), the better.

And he’s the most comprehensive, across-the-boardconservaitve candidate in the field, bar none. Onm every issue out there today, Dr. Keyes is taking the conservative position.

Yet some people seem to have great animosity towards him.

[TBP]

Huckabee and McCain both stink; not just McCain.

True. Its' a questionof who stinks less. I think the answer is neither.

[CrosscutSaw]

Again, if/when Obama or Clinto nominate a liberal to the Supreme Court, conservatives will jump to rally in opposition and attempt to stop the nomination cold.

If McCain were to be elected (Heaven forbid), when he nominates a liberal to the Supreme Court, many “conservatives” will hesitate to criticize and take the stance that the nominee deserves a chance because McCain is “supposedly” “one of us.”