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Maybe We Really Do Need a Third Party
Red State ^ | 7/9/2012 | Erick Erickson

Posted on 07/09/2012 1:20:40 PM PDT by IbJensen

“The problem for the GOP is that it is in danger of fracturing, not because it has moved so far right, but because it refuses to actually practice what it preaches.”

Senator Max Baucus of Montana receives campaign donations from the parent company of Phillip Morris. Senator Baucus then puts a provision in the highway transportation bill banning roll your own cigarette operations, a business that does not exist in Montana.

Forty people in Harry Reid’s Nevada and elsewhere will lose their jobs because a transportation bill actively and willfully legislated a legal business out of business by driving up the regulatory burden so excessively. Major cigarette manufacturers championed the legislation and Republicans supported it because it will increase tax revenue without them voting to raise taxes.

Put bluntly, Republicans voted to do exactly what they they accuse the Democrats of doing — shut down businesses by driving up regulatory burdens in an effort to increase taxes.

Max Baucus may have inserted the provision, but it made it through Republican House of Representatives. Maybe we do need a third party to do the job Republicans campaign on doing, but then get to Washington and don’t actually do.

I am not at the point of really advocating a third party. But I know me writing this will get the attention it needs to get.

The Republicans in Washington really have no clue.

For several months members of the media have lusted after a third party candidate — a serious “grown up” to speak the hard truths about the deficit, the need to raise taxes, etc. In fact, pay attention you people in the media, there is a very simple formula I have developed to explain the media these days:

Greater the number of stories about Americans Elect and No Labels

Equals

The lower the number of viewers and readers of the media outlet

The media elite who get positively orgasmic about things like No Labels and Americans Elect are convinced they are tapped into the pulse of the American people, but in fact are only tapped into the pulse of their throbbing for people like themselves being put in charge instead of the hicks and rubes from America’s river valleys the tea party types keep agitating for.

A third party could have been successful in the United States this year, but it would have required a populist attack against Washington and spending. Done right, it would have resonated across Tea Party and Occupy circles. But it did not happen.

As media ratings have declined and the talk within Beltway media circles of “serious” “adult” “third party” challenges has increased, Republican leaders in Washington who have more and more in common with the media that covers them and less and less in common with their constituents back home — hell, look at Indiana’s Senator who does not even live in Indiana anymore and consequently got thrown out much to the outrage of Beltway elites — have become less and less like the Party of Reagan and more and more like the Party of John Anderson.

The problem for the GOP is that it is in danger of fracturing, not because it has moved so far right, but because it refuses to actually practice what it preaches.

The Republican Party’s actual policy positions help small businesses and individuals. It is the party of the individual against the collective. But Republican leaders are not willing to actually fight for those values in the face of media criticism.

In fact, the very types of people the media and more senior Republicans and Democrats alike are advocating are the very people who made the compromise decisions to get us to $16 trillion in debt. And, by the way, we spent ourselves there we didn’t tax ourselves there.

This comes full circle.

A Republican Party that has been unwilling to cut spending has now let go through Congress legislation to shut down lawful, legal businesses because cigarette industry lobbyists and a Senate Democrat wanted it done.

We’re not ready for a third party and both this site and I will continue advocating for conservative Republicans, but if the GOP doesn’t finally get a clue, I won’t be surprised to see it implode. By the way, this year fewer and fewer Republican candidates are signing the tax pledge on the advice of Republican members of Congress. This is another warning sign that the Eric Cantor led Republican conference is going far afield from what those who vote Republican actually want.

The GOP better get back to its pro-liberty roots quickly.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: 2012; evilobamaregime; republicratpussies
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The entire political situation is sickening. The lack of intestinal fortitude on the part of the damned Repblicans is enough to make honest conservatives want to puke.

Mitch McConnell stands in front of the cameras and microphones to state that the 2,700 page death edict known as Obozocare is too big to bring down. I aave said before that firing every employee whose job it is to implement this garbage, tear out their phones, take away their cell phones, ipads and credit cards, sell the furnishings and declare this monstrosity dead before it finishes the job of killing the nation and its inhabitants.

1 posted on 07/09/2012 1:20:47 PM PDT by IbJensen
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To: IbJensen

I’d settle for a distinct second party.


2 posted on 07/09/2012 1:22:35 PM PDT by null and void (Day 1265 of our ObamaVacation from reality - Heroes aren't made Frank, they're cornered...)
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To: IbJensen

I think Ann Coulter got it right (again) when she was talking about one of the underhanded things the democrats were doing. She said, “The Democrats are evil, but they’re not stupid. That’s us.”


3 posted on 07/09/2012 1:27:35 PM PDT by wolfpat (Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. -- Cicero)
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To: IbJensen

I’m more inclined to think the Democrats need to split into two parties. The other one could be called the Occupy Party.


4 posted on 07/09/2012 1:28:24 PM PDT by pallis
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To: IbJensen

The rate things are going, the GOP will be a third party.


5 posted on 07/09/2012 1:29:54 PM PDT by dfwgator (FUJR (not you, Jim))
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To: null and void

“I’d settle for a distinct second party.”

Well said....er...written.


6 posted on 07/09/2012 1:30:15 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: IbJensen

We cannot have one until a real majority is required for election.


7 posted on 07/09/2012 1:31:42 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (zerogottago)
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To: IbJensen

The First American Republic is dead. Died some time ago. It will take CWII to establish a Second American Republic.


8 posted on 07/09/2012 1:31:53 PM PDT by Noumenon (I will not pay the Obama jizya.)
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To: IbJensen

Agreed!


9 posted on 07/09/2012 1:32:21 PM PDT by mongo141 (Revolution ver. 2.0, just a matter of when, not a matter of if!)
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To: Noumenon

“The First American Republic is dead. Died some time ago. It will take CWII to establish a Second American Republic.”

___

Agreed!


10 posted on 07/09/2012 1:34:46 PM PDT by mongo141 (Revolution ver. 2.0, just a matter of when, not a matter of if!)
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To: IbJensen

The silent majority need only take over one of the parties and allow the country club rinos go away with cristine todd whitman into her third party.

I agree though that there is a serious lack of AMERICAN leadership in the republic party. We only have managers and manipulators, no leaders.


11 posted on 07/09/2012 1:35:26 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: IbJensen
Photobucket
12 posted on 07/09/2012 1:44:25 PM PDT by GraceG
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To: longtermmemmory

” - - - The silent majority need only take over one of the parties and allow the country club rinos go away - - - “

That is the plan.

Third parties cannot win as long as the winner is determined by a plurality.

If the laws were changed so that 50 % plus one vote determined the winner then the third party would have a chance.

Thus, it is much more effective to just boot out the RINOs and run the Republican Party the way it should be run, come 2014.


13 posted on 07/09/2012 1:46:58 PM PDT by Graewoulf ((Traitor John Roberts' Obama"care" violates Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND the U.S. Constitution.))
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To: longtermmemmory

You say: “The silent majority need only take over one of the parties and allow the country club rinos go away....”

So are you a precinct delegate? I am but sadly not enough TEA partiers took action on this logical solution in my opinion.


14 posted on 07/09/2012 1:47:24 PM PDT by tunedin
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To: longtermmemmory
All the major parties (there are 2 of them) are made up of various interest groups and segments of society and the economy. They are coalitions. Their purpose is to compete to win elections in single member districts.

In examining the Republican party it started out as a pretty clear coalition of Liberty Interests and Business Interests.

The Civil War came along. They won. The coalitions reassembled themselves and once Grant's Administration was passed on into history, we start with "modern times".

Currently two new interest groups ~ one called the Mittbots and another called the GoP-e have consorted together to subvert the Republican party and take it away from its historic bottom up control structure.

It is our job to stop them, and then REMOVE them from the Republican party. They are better off among their own kind in the Democrat party ~

15 posted on 07/09/2012 1:49:11 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: tunedin

We need one but not THIS election...

(Look for someone to try and use the old “divide and conquer” strategy though—financed by the other side...)


16 posted on 07/09/2012 1:49:11 PM PDT by CondorFlight (I)
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To: IbJensen

This episode PERFECTLY illustrates EVERYTHING that the people have come to loathe and detest about Congress.

- Important change affecting many people slipped-in quietly at the last minute and attached to an unrelated bill on a Friday heading into a holiday.

- Change has never been subject to a full debate or public comment period.

- Powerful interests with vested financial interests are involved in actually writing the bill as well as lobbying for it.

- Details contained within the bill itself are at a Monty Python level of absurd (customers who sit and roll their own smokes on a borrowed machine are MANUFACTURERS???)

- Bill it is attached to is loaded with so much pork it attracts votes from all sides of the aisle.

- Congressional weasel who pulled this off WILL NOT EVEN RETURN PHONE CALLS seeking comment (quoted in many news accounts).

- Small businessmen put out of business, some financially ruined, by what Congress has done.

If smokers don’t spend every last dime they can spare to defeat Max Baucus the next time his seat is up then they deserve whatever is headed their way next.


17 posted on 07/09/2012 1:51:46 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: IbJensen
If you live in a solidly Blue state, you should vote for the Green Party candidate.

If the first third party to gain credence is a leftwing one, then that will siphon votes away from the Democrats.

If the Green Party gets big enough, we can then think about starting a bonafide conservative party to threaten the Republicans with similar ballot box competition if they refuse to abide by their platform.

18 posted on 07/09/2012 1:53:53 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: IbJensen; onyx; trisham; TheOldLady; DJ MacWoW; JoeProBono; RedMDer; musicman; Lady Jag; MEG33; ...

When both parties run abortionist/homosexualist statists, we have NO choice at all. It’s like a communist state one party election! Soros must be very pleased. Damn the statist parties!!

When the Chief Justice of the United States formally throws out the constitutional limits on government, we no longer have a constitutional republic!!

And this guy is supposedly a constitutionalist conservative appointed by a Republican president.

When we have a godless abortionist/homosexualist STATIST sitting in the White House and a godless abortionist/homosexualist STATIST congress under Reid and Pelosi throwing out all the longstanding congressional rules and ramming blatantly unconstitutional STATIST programs through congress over the objections of we the people and then we have the Chief Justice of the United States stamp his approval on it, we, my friends are in seriously deep doo-doo.

Our constitutional republic has been effectively dissolved before our very eyes and effectively dissolved by our own supposedly conservative Republican party!!

And now our supposedly conservative Republican party chooses to run a blatantly abortionist/homosexualist STATIST candidate for president??

C’mon, folks, give me a break!! Romney is the STATIST idiot who rammed the STATIST RomneyCare program through in Massachusetts and that directly morphed into ObamaCare and then Chief Justice Roberts knifed us all in the back and single-handily brought down our constitutional Republic!!

All of our enemies and the communists over the years could not conquer America by war or threat of war but the enemy within brought us down. And we are now being asked to sanction with our sacred vote the very STATIST idiot who made the loss of our beloved Republic possible?

NOT ON MY WATCH!!

FUMR!! FUKR!! FUGOP-e!! FUBO!! (FU = freep you)

No way in hell will I ever cast my vote for a known STATIST idiot like Romney!!

Statism - the theory or practice of concentrating economic and political power in the state, resulting in a weak position for the individual or community with respect to the government

Long live the grass roots tea party rebellion!! Long live the Republic!! Long live Liberty!!


19 posted on 07/09/2012 1:54:28 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: Graewoulf
Doesn't matter how you do the cut off for winners, eventually you need to have 50%+1 to win, and that's what the parties get organized around.

Think about this ~ let's say you set winning at 35% ~ and a coalition party was formed around the idea they could get 35% and they'd win, and this other coalition formed around the idea they could get 36% and they'd win, now what do you think is going to happen?

Obviously you have to regularly have 50%+1 victories, but not too much more than that or you end up getting a surplus of losers in your coalition, and you'll find yourself fighting bygone policy battles forever ~ just listen to the Democrats in the NE. They haven't had a new idea in 75 years!

20 posted on 07/09/2012 1:57:02 PM PDT by muawiyah
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