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 ...
I vaguely remember someone saying that we don't want educated people because you can't control them. Maybe 2 centuries ago...but look at any 3rd world country.
They’ll be identifiable by their hats and walking canes.
Hey ... maybe we could get Boo-Hoo Bonner to join us too ... then we'd really have something ! /S
We keep thinking the GOP will change...never happen...there is only a third party..maybe that will scare the GOP enough to change..hell there already caving....Maybe it will all collapse under OBAMA
He is right, but by the time we get it established (a couple of more election cycles) there won’t be anything left to save.
I think he’s right about the ability to rebrand Republican at this point. The Left has changed their name many times. They were Progressives, then Liberals, then Progressives. A viable third party does not need to win, it just needs enough power that both sides have to appeal to it in order to win, a super caucus as it were. The Independent Party. Let them try to make fun of and demonize that name.
I am kind of in agreement regarding a third party. Before Tuesday, I thought that they were a drain on the GOP in elections and caused loses for our side. But now I’m thinking that since the Tea Party hasn’t been able to turn the party back to it’s a Conservative roots, that it’s time to look at another strategy.
“...we resist the denigration of traditional marriage, we resist the popular attitudes on abortion...”
While I personally agree, a political party with that as part of its platform will never win a national race in this country.
We need a conservative party in deed and not just in name.
No, but that's what will happen every time the GOP runs a centrist candidate, particularly one who was chosen before the primaries ever even started. Run a candidate who stands for something, and the voters will pull together around him like soldiers rallying 'round a flag.
Having the party elite ram a preselected, over-produced Anointed One down the throats of the party rank and file is not a recipe for unification.
It's all about free travel, free food, and speaking fees.
I voted for Jill Stein in California because Romney had no chance here.
If every conservative in a solid blue state had voted for the Green Party and they had received 5% of the national vote that would have lit a fire under that party.
Then they would split the Democrat vote.
When the Green Party got to a critical mass we could then safely create a fourth truly conservative party to keep the Pubbies in line.
Time to ditch the Whig party.
Having a recognizable party “elite” is the problem...
We now have a “third” party and that is it...The “elites”....Face it, people...the democrats are not going to divide...so any real third party just divides so-called republican votes even more...
What is needed is to force the RINO’s out of the replican party...Have a Republican/Conservative party...Get rid of the liberal leaning POS that are now in the Republican party...
After what they did to Akin, and Mourdock, the war’s already on.
News flash to GOP leaders: Acting like Democrats is not the path to victory.
The GOP again needs a leader like Thatcher or Reagan. The TEA party started something in 2010 and needs to continue the work of both transforming the GOP and then America. All that is needed is a new leader to emerge that believes in America and the values of liberty and free enterprise and is not willing to compromise to just get along. Think of Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan and other conservatives as prophets of one greater to come.
I’d like to fix the GOP if at all possible. Talk of a third party will only further split what we already have. The last two elections we were handed a candidate that many just could not get behind. Why? How do we promote those whom we can really support? What can we do to influence that process? That work needs to begin NOW.
It appears to me that we have too many Conservatives in the Republican Primaries; they split the Conservative vote into several pieces, and leave the nomination to the rino. We need to have a “Conservative Only” Primary, and select one “1” Conservative to run in the Republican Primary. Doing that, we don’t water down the Conservative vote, and let the rino slip in.....
Here are their vote totals in the last six elections:
1992 – Howard Phillips and Albion Knight – 43,369 votes.
1996 – Howard Phillips and Herb Titus – 184,820 votes
2000 – Howard Phillips and Curtis Frazier – 98,022 votes
2004 – Michael Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin – 143,630 votes
2008 – Chuck Baldwin and Darrell Castle – 199,750 votes
2012 – Virgil Goode and Jim Clymer – 98,755 votes
As for the Libertarian Party, it doubled their tally for this year's Presidential candidate and received 1.2 million votes, mostly on the coat tails of disgruntled Ron Paul supporters, yet it barely broke 1% of the total electorate.
No third party candidate has ever won a national election, unless you count Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In that case, the Whig Party had disintegrated as the second party, and Lincoln and others cobbled together a replacement second party with remnants of the Whig and Know-Nothing Parties and some disgruntled Democrats. Historically, third parties have helped the two main parties win elections, starting with Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, which helped elect Woodrow Wilson; George Wallace's American Independent Party in 1968, which took away enough Southern Democrats to elect Richard Nixon; and Ross Perot's Reform Party, which enabled Bill Clinton to win twice in 1992 and 1996 with a plurality of the vote. In other cases, they are ineffectual even if they have significant vote totals, as with Strom Thurmond and Henry Wallace in 1948, who pulled right-wing and left-wing votes from the Democrats, respectively, but who failed to defeat Truman, and John Anderson in 1980, whose RINO campaign did not deter Reagan from winning a landslide.
Good luck to Cain, Palin, and any others who look toward a third party, but historical evidence indicates it will be a near impossible task.
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