A conservative third party effort requires a super wealthy, credible conservative candidate for President — a Perot without Perot’s quirkiness and controlling personality. Since no such paladin has appeared on the scene, we must make do with the GOP, as Reagan so successfully did.
Or, we could try real self-government by real people.
“A conservative third party effort requires a super wealthy, credible conservative candidate for President — a Perot without Perot’s quirkiness and controlling personality. Since no such paladin has appeared on the scene, we must make do with the GOP, as Reagan so successfully did.”
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I agree! We must use the Republican party, independent and 3rd party efforts as we don’t have Teddy Roosevelt or Perot (neither of whom *won* as 3rd party/2nd party hopefuls). Even those men’s best efforts were 27.4%, enough to elect the other side, and then dissipating what they did in the future. Roosevelt ran as a Republican again, for instance and we’ve really not heard about Perot since then, the glory of the Reform party being Jesse Ventura (1998) - yikes!?
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The following from:
http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/timeline.htm
June 18-22, 1912 Republican National Convention meets in Chicago and renominates incumbent Taft even though TR has won all but one primary and caucus. Roosevelt supporters bolt, charging “theft” of nomination.
August 5-7, 1912 Convention of new National Progressive party (nicknamed “Bull Moose” party) held in Chicago, adopts reform platform, and nominates TR for President and Governor Hiram W. Johnson of California for Vice President.
“This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.”...”Laws are enacted for the benefit of the whole people, and must not be construed as permitting discrimination against some of the people.”
October 14, 1912 Shot in the chest while entering an automobile outside the Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee, WI by would-be assassin John Nepomuk Schrank at about 8:00 p.m. Campaigning on the “Bull Moose” ticket, TR delivers a 90-minute speech at the Auditorium in Milwaukee before seeking medical attention. The bullet would never be removed. [Schrank was declared insane on November 13, 1912 and committed to the Northern State Hospital for the Insane at Oshkosh, WI, and died at the Central State Hospital in Waupun, WI on September 15,1943.]
“I did not care a rap for being shot. It is a trade risk, which every prominent public man ought to accept as a matter of course.”
November 5, 1912 Democrat Woodrow Wilson elected president over TR, who came in second, and Republican Taft. Roosevelt received the largest percentage of votes of any third party candidate.
Wilson won the election:
6,293,454 popular votes, 435 Electoral votes/40 states.
Roosevelt came in second:
4,119,538 votes , 88 Electoral votes/6 states.
(27.4% of the popular vote)
Taft came in third:
3,484,980 votes, 8 Electoral votes/2 states.
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[Skip forward 4 years.]
June 7-10, 1916 Republican and Progressive national conventions meet in Chicago, at same time in different halls, in an effort at a joint nomination.
June 10, 1916 Progressives nominate Theodore Roosevelt; Republicans nominate Charles Evans Hughs; TR declines Progressive nomination and eventually backs Hughes.
“We have room for but one loyalty, loyalty to the United States. We have room for but one language, the language of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Speech.”
February, 1917 Roosevelt’s requests permission of President Wilson to raise, equip and lead volunteer division for service in France in World War I.
“Peace is not the end. Righteousness is the end.”...”If I must choose between righteousness and peace I choose righteousness.”
May 19, 1917 President Wilson refuses Roosevelt’s service request.
1917 TR’s family supports the War effort. All four of his sons enlist. His daughter Ethel serves as a Red Cross nurse at the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris, accompanying her husband, surgeon Dr. Richard Derby.