Third Party Opportunity at last?

[opinionator]

I know that people are always hesistant to vote for any third party candidate. The fear is that the vote is being thrown away. Third parties don’t have a chance, do they? Well, they don’t with that sort of thinking. If there was ever a year to vote third party this is the year. To put it mildly, Trump and Clinton both leave much to be desired. I know that their respective die hard supporters will disagree. But this isn’t for them. This plea is to those who find themselves voting for what they consider the lesser of two evils.

Gary Johnson, in my humble opinion, has something to offer both Republican leaning voters as well as Democrats. But as far as the specifics, I’ll leave that up to you. Here, all I wish to do is to address the idea that a vote for Gary is a vote thrown away.

The bottom line is that until the election anything is possible. Although unprecedented, there could be a massive shift in support to Johnson. Republicans would have to defect en masse to begin with, which may very well be imminent. Once it was apparent that Gary has growing support, there is no doubt that disaffected and half-hearted Hillary supporters would join the party as well.

But nothing happens if we cannot overcome our programming. We are programmed to think in terms of the two party system. Anything outside of that seems extreme and radical. But in this case, the most rational candidate is actually Gary Johnson. The only thing stopping a third party from winning is the votes. In the age of pervasive social media, money doesn’t have the impact it once had. This ball can get rolling. Those of us who believe this is the way just need to keep the momentum.

As I said, this isn’t an effort to convince you that Gary should be your candidate. This is for those who already know that he is a viable alternative but are worried that your vote would be wasted. There is still a chance. This election cycle has already been far from normal. Why shouldn’t history be made while we’re at it?

The Scribbling Sage

 

[yiostheoy]

The only use for a 3rd Party is to be able to meet your civic obligation for voting yet not have to confess you voted for Donald or for Hillary.

I will probably vote for Jill.

I usually go Green anytime I cannot stand the other two.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

"Third Party Opportunity at last?"

No.

 

[candycorn]

The flip side of this is, of course, that the Libertarian party is getting a longer look than normal by disenchanted major party backers (I am not one of them) and the Libertarian party is still being roundly rejected.

I am a pretty liberal guy but I believe that if you are not able to expand your base--as labor unions have done for example--it is more your fault than it is the fault of those who conspire against you. Certainly there are those who detract from both third parties and labor unions but the truth is that neither third parties or unions have given people a reason to believe in their causes.

 

[Pete7469]

I was considering Yosemite Sam, but if Johnson starts to get some traction we'll see.

As long as Hitlery loses.

 

[yiostheoy]

I was considering Yosemite Sam, but if Johnson starts to get some traction we'll see.

As long as Hitlery loses.

Hillary will win. There is no question about it.

She has the DEM women, she has the DEM men, she has the GOP women, she has half of the GOP men (the ones that went to college and graduated), she has the NAACP, she has the Latinos/Latinas, she has the LGBT (for some reason the NAACP has been putting Q on the end of this -- not exactly sure why though), she has the American Muslims thanks to Khan, and because the DNC Convention went so well and gave everybody such warm and fuzzy feelings she has most of the male and female Independents, and most Asians are smart enough to see the Trump is a chump too.

 

[Pete7469]

I was considering Yosemite Sam, but if Johnson starts to get some traction we'll see.

As long as Hitlery loses.

Hillary will win. There is no question about it.

She has the DEM women, she has the GOP women, she has the NAACP, she has the Latinos/Latinas, she has the LGBT (for some reason the NAACP has been putting Q on the end of this -- not exactly sure why though), she has the American Muslims thanks to Khan, and most Asians are smart enough to see the Trump is a chump too.

Collectively they still don't amount to shit. Just because the heads of these whacko hate groups endorse hitlery, doesn't mean all the people they claim to represent will vote the way the democrook commissars insist.

Hitlery is repulsive to any lucid person.Trump is just a clown.

Only bed wetting libturd pansies are scared of clowns, and only mindless collectivist sheep blindly carry cults of personality to tragic ends.

 

[Harry Dresden]

The flip side of this is, of course, that the Libertarian party is getting a longer look than normal by disenchanted major party backers (I am not one of them) and the Libertarian party is still being roundly rejected.

I am a pretty liberal guy but I believe that if you are not able to expand your base--as labor unions have done for example--it is more your fault than it is the fault of those who conspire against you. Certainly there are those who detract from both third parties and labor unions but the truth is that neither third parties or unions have given people a reason to believe in their causes.

neither third parties or unions have given people a reason to believe in their causes.
they do now.....its called hillary and trump....

 

[Dekster]

I am writing in James Cox, a democrat whose time just hadn't come yet

Third parties will never be meaningful choices in the POTUS races until they can build a local state roster that gets them some house seats at the very least.

 

[candycorn]

The flip side of this is, of course, that the Libertarian party is getting a longer look than normal by disenchanted major party backers (I am not one of them) and the Libertarian party is still being roundly rejected.

I am a pretty liberal guy but I believe that if you are not able to expand your base--as labor unions have done for example--it is more your fault than it is the fault of those who conspire against you. Certainly there are those who detract from both third parties and labor unions but the truth is that neither third parties or unions have given people a reason to believe in their causes.

neither third parties or unions have given people a reason to believe in their causes.
they do now.....its called hillary and trump....

This is where I disagree with you. If you look at the resume, it's is 100% clear to a blind man whom is the better qualified candidate. Marco Rubio said as much. The US Senate said as much when they approved her 94-2.

I'm not voting against Mr. Trump. I am voting for Ms. Clinton.
The positives FAR outweigh the negatives; most of which have been amplified to cartoonish levels. We all know the middle east is unstable and it is customary for US embassies, facilities, barracks, and even warships to be attacked by terrorists in that region of the world. It happens irrespective of whom is in the Oval Office. Yet somehow "she" left 4 americans to die in an act of terrorism. The private server is about the silliest thing ever. As the DNC breach has indicated, even supposedly secured servers are open to attack. There isn't enough bandwidth in the world to list all of the nations and private entities that have been hacked. Further still, any such attack happened no more recently than 2012 (if it even happened then).
Putting aside these two issues; one still finds imperfections in her record. As they would with anyone who has been in the arena for almost 30 years. I mean, think about your mayor or state legislator...in their largely anonymous role in the history of the republic do they suffer from being totally above board?

I would encourage third parties and unions to continue to try to rehabilitate their image and their ranks. I enjoy having a real choice for President. I split my ticket freely and randomly in the state and local races. Given the difference in the Federal system, anyone who splits federally is pretty stupid if the choices are Democrats and Republicans since they caucus separately. Having a vibrant 3rd party would be a great thing for the nation in my view. Since you would end up with coalition governance, you'd have some real deal making taking place instead of nonsense like austerity/sequestration and we can fix the infastructure and we can get back to being a nation that doesn't only talk about being great but one that does great things.

Contrary to what the losers think; the American People are not stupid. They pretty much like the way it works. The Feds tax you at a certain level and you get far more government than you're paying for. Locally, they elect conservatives who try to keep costs low as possible. As long as they are happy with this equation, 3rd parties are going to have a tough road ahead.

 

[Ozone]

third parties are useless until the congress decides to change from the majority/minority caucus system. that's just how it is, the winner-take-all methods we have in place, especially with the electoral college instead of the popular vote. we're stuck with the choice between the lesser of two evils because we're too obsessed with winning the whole thing instead of focused on getting a strong voice in the chorus, so to speak. what would happen if the very idea of congressional districts was discarded, because there's already the senate to represent the people of the states, seats in the house should be awarded to all kinds of nationally recognized peaceful assemblies. for example, if a labor union can organize and elect a representative, or a church organization, or a tribal organization, and so forth. so long as there's an understanding that there can be no more than the maximum number of seats in the house altogether. i mean to suggest that if you're an african-american catholic auto worker, well that's at least three representatives in congress right there to focus on instead of getting slighted over redistricting every ten years. of course, such a system would probably eliminate the sort of satisfaction that democrats get from beating people into submission, that is, no more majority or minority whips, but then again isn't that a good thing?

 

[flacaltenn]

I know that people are always hesistant to vote for any third party candidate. The fear is that the vote is being thrown away. Third parties don’t have a chance, do they? Well, they don’t with that sort of thinking. If there was ever a year to vote third party this is the year. To put it mildly, Trump and Clinton both leave much to be desired. I know that their respective die hard supporters will disagree. But this isn’t for them. This plea is to those who find themselves voting for what they consider the lesser of two evils.

Gary Johnson, in my humble opinion, has something to offer both Republican leaning voters as well as Democrats. But as far as the specifics, I’ll leave that up to you. Here, all I wish to do is to address the idea that a vote for Gary is a vote thrown away.

The bottom line is that until the election anything is possible. Although unprecedented, there could be a massive shift in support to Johnson. Republicans would have to defect en masse to begin with, which may very well be imminent. Once it was apparent that Gary has growing support, there is no doubt that disaffected and half-hearted Hillary supporters would join the party as well.

But nothing happens if we cannot overcome our programming. We are programmed to think in terms of the two party system. Anything outside of that seems extreme and radical. But in this case, the most rational candidate is actually Gary Johnson. The only thing stopping a third party from winning is the votes. In the age of pervasive social media, money doesn’t have the impact it once had. This ball can get rolling. Those of us who believe this is the way just need to keep the momentum.

As I said, this isn’t an effort to convince you that Gary should be your candidate. This is for those who already know that he is a viable alternative but are worried that your vote would be wasted. There is still a chance. This election cycle has already been far from normal. Why shouldn’t history be made while we’re at it?

The Scribbling Sage

There's some thoughts on this over in the Gary Johnson forum. What I see is that folks dont' understand the diff between politicians who ASK for your vote and politicians who EXPECT your vote. There's a big dose of humility present when folks run on 3rd party tickets to SERVE and not just preserve the POWER and INFLUENCE of their party.

And wouldn't a little humility be nice about now? You won't find a TRACE of it in the other 2 arrogant maniacs.

Right now the partisan time bomb has to be defused. Electing EITHER Dem/Rep candidate is throwing fuel on the fire. And I look at Johnson/Weld as an Intervention team to do just that. Wouldn't it be refreshing to have all the agencies headed by NEUTRAL COMPETENT people? Instead of raving partisans put there as crony favorites to PROTECT the ass of the Admin in power.

If you ASK to serve --- people just don't get it. They think ClinTrump are ENTITLED to serve. And those meglomaniacs certainly believe that too. That's the REAL basis for the phony "wasted vote" concept.

 

[flacaltenn]

third parties are useless until the congress decides to change from the majority/minority caucus system. that's just how it is, the winner-take-all methods we have in place, especially with the electoral college instead of the popular vote. we're stuck with the choice between the lesser of two evils because we're too obsessed with winning the whole thing instead of focused on getting a strong voice in the chorus, so to speak. what would happen if the very idea of congressional districts was discarded, because there's already the senate to represent the people of the states, seats in the house should be awarded to all kinds of nationally recognized peaceful assemblies. for example, if a labor union can organize and elect a representative, or a church organization, or a tribal organization, and so forth. so long as there's an understanding that there can be no more than the maximum number of seats in the house altogether. i mean to suggest that if you're an african-american catholic auto worker, well that's at least three representatives in congress right there to focus on instead of getting slighted over redistricting every ten years. of course, such a system would probably eliminate the sort of satisfaction that democrats get from beating people into submission, that is, no more majority or minority whips, but then again isn't that a good thing?

The parties have made almost EVERY Congress person irrelevant. There are only 4 party hacks that control every event on the hill. And they can "primary you out" and put you in a broom closet for an office if you actually speak your mind. So it's not just the VOTERS that are wary of the 2 colluding parties, the ELECTED officials are muzzled and chained up and frustrated.

Politicians need asylum from this partisan insanity. Just in past year the LParty has received about 6 or 8 State level representatives who were just FED UP with their parties. Third parties offer THEM a chance to be relevant again. And when a ticket like Johnson/Weld shows up --- that "slow clap" like you see in the Hollywood movies starts off with one and ends up in a cascade of agreement.

America needs a mediation team soon. Or this partisan poo-fight is gonna take us into further decline.

 

[Skylar]

I know that people are always hesistant to vote for any third party candidate. The fear is that the vote is being thrown away. Third parties don’t have a chance, do they? Well, they don’t with that sort of thinking. If there was ever a year to vote third party this is the year. To put it mildly, Trump and Clinton both leave much to be desired. I know that their respective die hard supporters will disagree. But this isn’t for them. This plea is to those who find themselves voting for what they consider the lesser of two evils.

Gary Johnson, in my humble opinion, has something to offer both Republican leaning voters as well as Democrats. But as far as the specifics, I’ll leave that up to you. Here, all I wish to do is to address the idea that a vote for Gary is a vote thrown away.

The bottom line is that until the election anything is possible. Although unprecedented, there could be a massive shift in support to Johnson. Republicans would have to defect en masse to begin with, which may very well be imminent. Once it was apparent that Gary has growing support, there is no doubt that disaffected and half-hearted Hillary supporters would join the party as well.

But nothing happens if we cannot overcome our programming. We are programmed to think in terms of the two party system. Anything outside of that seems extreme and radical. But in this case, the most rational candidate is actually Gary Johnson. The only thing stopping a third party from winning is the votes. In the age of pervasive social media, money doesn’t have the impact it once had. This ball can get rolling. Those of us who believe this is the way just need to keep the momentum.

As I said, this isn’t an effort to convince you that Gary should be your candidate. This is for those who already know that he is a viable alternative but are worried that your vote would be wasted. There is still a chance. This election cycle has already been far from normal. Why shouldn’t history be made while we’re at it?

The Scribbling Sage

Probably not.

 

[Harry Dresden]

The flip side of this is, of course, that the Libertarian party is getting a longer look than normal by disenchanted major party backers (I am not one of them) and the Libertarian party is still being roundly rejected.

I am a pretty liberal guy but I believe that if you are not able to expand your base--as labor unions have done for example--it is more your fault than it is the fault of those who conspire against you. Certainly there are those who detract from both third parties and labor unions but the truth is that neither third parties or unions have given people a reason to believe in their causes.

neither third parties or unions have given people a reason to believe in their causes.
they do now.....its called hillary and trump....

This is where I disagree with you. If you look at the resume, it's is 100% clear to a blind man whom is the better qualified candidate. Marco Rubio said as much. The US Senate said as much when they approved her 94-2.

I'm not voting against Mr. Trump. I am voting for Ms. Clinton.
The positives FAR outweigh the negatives; most of which have been amplified to cartoonish levels. We all know the middle east is unstable and it is customary for US embassies, facilities, barracks, and even warships to be attacked by terrorists in that region of the world. It happens irrespective of whom is in the Oval Office. Yet somehow "she" left 4 americans to die in an act of terrorism. The private server is about the silliest thing ever. As the DNC breach has indicated, even supposedly secured servers are open to attack. There isn't enough bandwidth in the world to list all of the nations and private entities that have been hacked. Further still, any such attack happened no more recently than 2012 (if it even happened then).
Putting aside these two issues; one still finds imperfections in her record. As they would with anyone who has been in the arena for almost 30 years. I mean, think about your mayor or state legislator...in their largely anonymous role in the history of the republic do they suffer from being totally above board?

I would encourage third parties and unions to continue to try to rehabilitate their image and their ranks. I enjoy having a real choice for President. I split my ticket freely and randomly in the state and local races. Given the difference in the Federal system, anyone who splits federally is pretty stupid if the choices are Democrats and Republicans since they caucus separately. Having a vibrant 3rd party would be a great thing for the nation in my view. Since you would end up with coalition governance, you'd have some real deal making taking place instead of nonsense like austerity/sequestration and we can fix the infastructure and we can get back to being a nation that doesn't only talk about being great but one that does great things.

Contrary to what the losers think; the American People are not stupid. They pretty much like the way it works. The Feds tax you at a certain level and you get far more government than you're paying for. Locally, they elect conservatives who try to keep costs low as possible. As long as they are happy with this equation, 3rd parties are going to have a tough road ahead.

I'm not voting against Mr. Trump. I am voting for Ms. Clinton.
i will vote against both of them....neither one should be allowed anywhere near the White House....

 

[mamooth]

Stein is a loopy green fascist. She'd kill more people than Trump. How? By banning pesticides and GMO crops.

Jill Stein 2016 Platform
---
Label GMOs, and put a moratorium on GMOs and pesticides until they are proven safe.
---

Sorry, but I'll pass on someone who advocates policies that would cause mass starvation.

 

[P F Tinmore]

The debate commission is controlled by the DNC and RNC -- that's why the League of Women Voters of the U.S. called the debates "a fraud on the American voter."