Test for all 3rd party voters

[Volzfan]

For all of you who say that they can't vote for Mccain OR Obama and have to vote their conscience or that you are fed up and want to make a statement to the jerks in DC.

Ready?

Don't cheat and look up the answer!

Name the candidate that came in 3rd in the last presidential election!

[G27]

For all of you who say that they can't vote for Mccain OR Obama and have to vote their conscience or that you are fed up and want to make a statement to the jerks in DC.

Ready?

Don't cheat and look up the answer!

Name the candidate that came in 3rd in the last presidential election!

What does this prove?

[Volzfan]

What does this prove?

Doesn't really prove anything but that the statement that people were trying to make 4 years ago went for nothing then and it will go for nothing now. Third parties can't be silent for 4 years and expect to win enough votes. A third party should begin their campaign on the day after the new president is sworn in and try to stay in the news.

The only way that I can see 3rd parties becoming a force in national elections is to really go strong after state congressional seats and build from that state level. Then , once they get around 20% of those seats in DC then they should be able to be successful in national elections and not until.

I would love to vote for someone other than the front 2 but I don't want to take the chance of letting Obama in the White House so I will vote for McCain, unless he picks Charles Manson as his VP.

There is too much at stake to try to make a statement in this election. That's my and it's not really worth that much to some people.

[G27]

Well, until someone actually does well in the presidential election, it won;t be brought to light. Will it be this one? The next one? Who knows.

FWIW, I haven't decided who I'm voting for yet (though I know who I won't be voting for).

[Guest Abominable_Hillbilly]

What does this prove?

It merely proves that we live in a vacuous, media-driven nation of payment buyers who can't see past the end of their own noses.

In the last election, I voted for Bush. I didn't feel badly doing so. This election, however, neither of the two major party candidates are suitable.

[Guest jackdog]

Proves absolutely nothing. Our federal government is broken and it is primarily because people keep supporting the same bought and paid for political hacks from both parties.

[Guest unreconstructed1]

Name the candidate that came in 3rd in the last presidential election!

okay, so you would rather vote for a liberal democratic gun grabber or a liberal republican gun grabber than to vote for someone who "won't win". it is attitudes like yours that perpetuates the 2 party system, and the reason we are stuck with teh candidates in those 2 parties that we have now.

by the way, third place was Ralph Nader

[Volzfan]

The only way that I can see 3rd parties becoming a force in national elections is to really go strong after state congressional seats and build from that state level. Then , once they get around 20% of those seats in DC then they should be able to be successful in national elections and not until.

I would love to vote for someone other than the front 2 but I don't want to take the chance of letting Obama in the White House so I will vote for McCain

okay, so you would rather vote for a liberal democratic gun grabber or a liberal republican gun grabber than to vote for someone who "won't win". it is attitudes like yours that perpetuates the 2 party system, and the reason we are stuck with teh candidates in those 2 parties that we have now.

by the way, third place was Ralph Nader

As I stated I would love to vote for someone other than these two Bozo's but I will not take the chance of allowing BO to get in. Believe me, I am not a McCain fan! I simply feel that he will do much less harm than BO.

There is nothing that I would love to see more than throw out the party system completely!! It is probably the biggest reason for the mess we are in now. A freshman congressman in DC for the first time will be pressured into voting along party lines rather than vote what his constituants want. Even if he or she knows it is not in the best interest of the country. THAT SUCKS! This goes for both Dems and Rep. No I do not like it but until the rules are changed we have to play by those rules.

It is a crying shame that this country could not produce anyone any better than these two! Like it or not, one of these guys is going to be the next POTUS. In my mind I just think that there is too much at stake for me to try to make a statement by giving my vote to a third party.

I think that you and I are probably more alike than you think and I appreciate your opinion. Thanks.

[Guest Abominable_Hillbilly]

It is a crying shame that this country could not produce anyone any better than these two!

There are better candidates than Obama and McCain. You just can't find people brave enough to vote for them.

[Guest mikedwood]

I vote 3rd party when I vote. Often in some races I don't even know who they are but I want to get the 3rd party numbers up.

In reality it is the amount of money that one has in the bank that drives the bigger elections. That is who the news media pushes because it has to do in a large part with ad revenue and how much money the media companies make off the election.

Then there has been an argument made that the way the electoral college is set up even with 90% of the vote a 3rd party couldn't actually get sat in the White House. I forget what the argument was but it unfortunately seemed like a possibility.

I actually feel like the Democrats and Republicans are working together and the divisions are a smoke screen to keep us thinking there is a difference.

[Guest EasilyObsessed]

Why is it assumed that anyone who votes for a third party candidate would be otherwise voting for McCain?

[Guest unreconstructed1]

.

Then there has been an argument made that the way the electoral college is set up even with 90% of the vote a 3rd party couldn't actually get sat in the White House. I forget what the argument was but it unfortunately seemed like a possibility.

actually, several times during the nineteenth century there were 4-5, sometimes even more candidates who were all on the ticket, and who actually had a chance of getting elected. they used teh 3rd party then. it is teh 20th century that has witnessed this massive 2 party mess.

Why is it assumed that anyone who votes for a third party candidate would be otherwise voting for McCain?

the reason is because everything is seen as "cut and dry" these days, and that is exactly what the 2 party system wishes to perpetuate. in this political climate, you are either a "liberal" (democrat) or a "conservative" ( republican), and if you're political ideaology doesn't match with either, then you simply are supposed to change your ideaology to correspond to one or the other state sponsored ideaologies.

as a member of a local union, I hear teh same arguments, only reversed: a vote for an independent is just a vote for McCain", while amongst gun owners, it's "a vote for an independent is a vote for Obama"

I am neither democrat or republican. neither party is good for AMerica, and both parties are so secure in their monopoly on the electorate that they no longer care.

take this election for example. so many falks expres their desire to vote for neither, and yet, they have been so completely convinced by the 2 parties that there is o other choice that they do it anyway.

yes, this is an imoprtant election, etc. etc. but the change needs to start somewhere, and that's why this election, I'm voting for a third party candidate

Edited August 4, 2008 by unreconstructed1
while I initially stated Chuck Baldwin, honestly I haven't decided..

[Volzfan]

Why is it assumed that anyone who votes for a third party candidate would be otherwise voting for McCain?

I don't make any assumptions about who anyone will vote for. My only purpose in beginning this thread was to get people thinking about the best place for their vote.

I am terribly afraid of what Barak Obama is proposing. He will have to tax the s*%# out of us to pay for all of the things that he proposes. He says that he wants to reduce Government but all that he is talking about would require the vast expansion of the federal government. He will also, probably, get the opportunity to appoint maybe 3 judges to the Supreme Court. Most likely they would be liberal and the next time that a gun issue comes up to the SC that the vote would go against the 2nd amendment. They only have to win once and we gunowners will be screwed.

McCain is not vastly different. I consider him to be a Replublacrat but I think that given the opportunity to appoint judges that the Republican Party would influence his choices and those judges would be more conservative. I also think that the Republicans would influence him on other issues.

I am truly pissed that we don't have a better choice that has a chance to win. Nader was #3 in the election 4 years ago and he only got 1% of the vote. Now he is running again but where has he been for the last 3 years. He certainly has not been keeping himself in the news. He should have been campaining for the last three years. Telling the country what he plans to do when he is elected. He has no chance nor does anyone else but these two frontrunning morons.