Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

A Third Party

11 Comments

A majority of American want one.

It’s nice to see a majority of Americans finally catching up with me — I’ve been unhappy with both parties all my adult life, and been unhappy with the direction of the country for as long. The problem is that there’s no agreement on what that third party would look like, or what its principles would be. I want it limited government/libertarian, but I’ll bet a lot of the Democrats are looking for something more socialist and bigger government.

11 thoughts on “A Third Party”

  1. Considering the nature of the relationship between the current RNC and the ‘opposition’ shouldn’t that be “Second Party” and not “Third”?

  2. I thought you had two already. The Libertarians and the Greens. The problem is the system you have which make it damn night impossible for them to win a national election due to the way elections are done in the US. They would have to run electoral college candidates across a load of states and get wins in all of them. That makes it damned hard for a small new party to enter the game.

    1. So, start small and build your party. Instead of aiming for the presidency, start running viable candiates for school boards, mayors, city officials and state legislators. Build a network that can win small elections and build a bench of candidates that can run for higher offices based on their qualifications and experience. Doing that will take time, perhaps decades. As it is, trying to build a third party without doing that is doomed to failure.

    2. The only national election is for president.
      A party can gain a lot of power without winning a national election. But they need to win at the local and state levels as well as congress which is also local and state wide elections.

  3. The rules of the Game are simple, winner take all. And in a winner take all system, the biggest faction wins. It will always, under our current rules, be two parties, or one winning party and several losing parties, which will keep losing until they get their act together and become a party big enough to compete with the winning party (at which point we are a two party system again…….).

    Second, of course, everyone wants a Third Party. Very few want your third party. It’s very easy to dream of a wonderful, pure, ethical yet practical, efficient and yet still humane party that advances my absolutely correct and best for the country desires. Actual Third Parties are filled with flakes and losers, both with ambition, but lacking the political skills to function in either of the current parties. Pretty scary, when you think how low the Democrats have set their bar, but there you go.

    Third, the history of Third Parties has been one of misery and failure. Third parties gave us the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and, repeating as comedy, Pornstar. Given how badly they have hurt the country in the past, maybe we should wait until Republicans are producing Detroits and ACAs. Right now, they saved New York, and are producing the Wisconsin miracle, as well as advancing Gun Rights for over twenty years. Just think what they could had done with proper support, as opposed to the traditional Real Republican (TM) throat slitting we are seeing on this very board……….

  4. the GOP looks like it’s about to fission. The Evangelicals vs the money people.
    I expect the money types will flee soon.

    1. The Republicans are always about to fission. We are Greece, and the Democrats are Persia. I would note that the Republicans have had nothing as nasty as the Democrats did, with their Clinton-Obama civil war…..

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