Posted on 11/08/2012 5:38:40 AM PST by Hojczyk
Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is calling for the creation of a third political party — saying it is clear to him that neither major political party is willing to address the nation’s economic problems.
“We need a third party to save this country,” Cain told American Family Radio host Bryan Fischer. “This country is in trouble and it is clear that neither party — is going to fix the problems we face.”
Cain agreed with Fischer’s assessment that conservatives are growing tired of being ignored by Republican party leadership — and that many believe the GOP no longer speaks for them.
Cain said it was troubling that Mitt Romney received fewer votes than John McCain did in 2008 — suggesting that many conservatives did not vote on Tuesday.
“I don’t believe the Republican Party has the ability to rebrand itself against the mainstream media machine that blatantly works to support this president and other liberals as well as the Democrats,” Cain told the radio host.
Cain said it would take money, leadership and at least 50 coalitions to create a viable third political party.
“You need one for every state because of the whacky rules state by state that they have that make it difficult for a third party to emerge,” he said. He said the new party could be made up of not only disenfranchised Republicans — but also Democrats.
“There are just as many disgruntled Democrats would probably be a part of this movement as there are Republicans — who are sick of the political class,” Cain told American Family Radio. “Realistically, it is more viable today than it has ever been.”
(Excerpt) Read more at radio.foxnews.com ...
No third party has ever been made up of the Republican base. Unless you like the idea of being ignored in national elections every four years while the hand-selected candidate crashes and burns, it’s an idea well worth considering.
What is wrong with trying to make the party listen to US for a change? What is wrong with attempting to rebuild the Reagan coalition? Neither of things are possible inside the Romney/Rove/Boehner/McConnell Republican Party. And I suspect you know that.
I couldn’t disagree more. Why reinvent the wheel. If you can’t outnumber them in the Republican party, you’re sure as heck not going to do it with another watered down “third party”.
Ma’am, respectfully, you’re missing the point.
The idea shouldn’t necessarily be to outnumber ‘them’ in the Republican Party. It’s to be listened to and to make a realistic difference.
We know the Republican Party in its present form can’t win even with its base intact, and will be in even worse shape without it. The Republican Party, like the Democrat Party, exists for the exertion of its own influence.
Splitting is the only way to bring them to the table. If they don’t come, then the party was never worth belonging to in the first place. Who wants to belong to a political party that won’t listen to you?
If you want the back seat on the bus every four years, fine. Stay on the Grand Old Plantation. But I want to belong to a party that wants to rebuild the Reagan coalition starting from its base, so it can start winning elections with a conservative philosophy that we know works. This election cycle the Republican Party showed — in spades — that it is not interested in doing this.
The beauty of the Tea Party is that it reaches across traditional political boundaries. It’s made up regular people who are fed up. The Republican Party could care less about us. So why stay?
/end sarc
Good list. I think you’ve started the playbook.
I’m in!
Step out and lead this.
Waste of time. Ours is a two party system in which the party out of power becomes the monopoly of the opposition. Any third party has one or two election cycles to merge with or take over the party out of power. It’s best for the Tea Party to take over the GOP at the grass roots level.
We need a second party. The republicrats are killing us.
As a leftie, I couldn’t disagree with you folks more on most topics. However, your problems with the Republicans are the same as my problems with the Democrats.
Third parties have been a great way to pressure major parties to adopt the policies of the third party voters. Unfortunately, the major parties strongly support existing laws that keep third parties in the margins.
Before forming or joining a third party, it is more important to build a grass-roots organization to press for reforms such as instant runoff or ranked-choice elections. If you could vote for the Constitutional or Libertarian Party as a first choice and the Republicans as a second choice (and I could do the same for the Greens), the lesser-of-two-evil, “Vote for XXX if you don’t want YYY to get in” arguments will lose all their force.
The organization I know of that is doing the most nationally is FairVote www.fairvote.org. You may not agree with all their positions, but they are a good place to start.
This is someone I can support with my check book. If he leads I will follow. I’mm 66 and I’m tired of being a minority in a weak party.
no herman
follow Jim Demint’s example and Sarah Palin’s example
and get out there and find and work for and help Conservative candidates for the next round of primaries; that’s how you take a party back instead of agreeing to throw in the towell and help destroy one
In the future the republican party will disappear or continue to represent moderates.
The “conservative” party will be one of two major parties and the repubs will be a third party.
Then we will accuse you of wasting your vote.
The process is available to everyone. Get behind your candidate in the primary and fight but then after that, the object is to destroy another RAT.
One example among many: The great Mia Love lost her race in Utah largely because of some third-party Libertarian idiot. Mia would have been a shining Superstar for the GOP... instead yet another 'RAT got elected. In conservative UTAH.
The last thing we need is a third party!
Under our system, ineffective parties collapse, cease to exist - then new parties form.
In each of the five party systems that the US has gone through, there have always been two parties.
A vote for a third party has always been, and always will be, a wasted vote.
I don’t act on historical precedent. I act on my interest and what I think is best for the country.
The new party WILL BE the second party, so you can ride into the background with the moderates.
As long as we keep doing what we have been doing, we’ll get what we’ve been getting.
yup..sure do need a 2nd party
Big talk.
What is the special ingredient that will make this attempt at a new second party succeed?
I would offer up historical impeti that have spurred such movements for comparison, but you assign zero value to history.
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