[elvis-lives]

For Consideration by a heart weary conservative.

[Le Chien Rouge]

Actually, we need a second party.

The GOP establishment and the democrats are the good cop,bad cop of collectivism.

[goodwithagun]

I keep posting this message: Both parties are driving us toward socialism it’s just that one party is driving a little faster than the other. If obama is reelected the fault lands squarely at the feet of the GOP for not supporting a true conservative. I will not vote for a RINO and if obama is reelected because of a third party then I’m ready to rip off the band-aid and have this revolution. I can fight for my children’s freedoms. If I help elect a RINO then my children will have to fight for their own freedoms. I’d rather do that for them.

[Silentgypsy]

Ping

[JSDude1]

I am with you in heart, may still vote Romney in the general, but will not enouthousastically campaign for him! J.S.

[SoConPubbie]

This is premature until we know if Myth or Ron Paul becomes the nominee.

If that is what happens, then it becomes imperative.

Until then, we should all be fighting for an acceptable alternative.

[freekitty]

The truth is we are being kept from having a viable candidate which we shouldn’t allow under any circumstance. They are afraid of the mention of conservative.

[mnehring]

Can we hold off on the panic attack until we have a few more primaries? Right now we’ve just had two primaries in liberal states where Dems can vote in them.

[joe fonebone]

The thing to keep in mind ( all of us ) is that it takes 1440 delegates at the convention to get the nomination. With ballots cast in the most moderate and liberal states for mcromney says nothing.... gotta let this thing play out, and do not get upset, it ain’t over till it is over

[hc87]

Welcome to Free Republic!

[GonzoGOP]

I have often thought that conservatives in deep blue states should vote third party. For people like me in Illinois our votes aren't going to matter anyway, but there are millions of conservatives in Illinois, New York and California. Show that a "Tea Party" candidate can get millions of votes and you will have made a point, at no real cost.

The other option is to scuttle Romney. Look Romney will be just as bad as Obama so it doesn't matter which one gets in. In fact it can be argued that Romney will be worse because the GOP will get the blame for all the worlds problems. So if Romney gets the nomination, conservatives should go third party for President, but vote GOP in house and Senate races to keep Obama in check. The scuttling of Romney will send a message to the establishment that they will need to bend to us, not the other way around. If they want conservative support they are going to at least have to throw us a bone.

[wideawake]

Third parties have never worked in the USA and will never work.

This is because they cannot work structurally in our system, which is not parliamentary or first-past-the-post.

Third parties are small businesses - their revenues are donations and the product they sell in exchange for those donations is the illusion of being part of something important.

[LBG11]

A third party would be detrimental to the US, meaning another four years of an Obama Presidency. It is important for all republicans and conservatives to support one candidate in the general election. Even if that candidate is Mitt Romney, anything a tad further right is better than what we have now. If conservatives are able to take a stand in the Senate and the House, Romney will not be an issue.

My concern is that if Romney wins the primary and the general election, he will run for reelection in 2016 (meaning conservatives will struggle with the same choice again). I hope the republican party would run someone against him in a primary in 2016 who is more conservative, but I question the party's desire to do so.

[central_va]

Maybe I’ll run my own personal experiment. If Myth Rino gets the nod then I will not participate in the general. i will vote senate and house and leave pres alone. If he can win without me then I am good to go third party from now on. The R’s don’t want or need me.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

The problem with advocating a third conservative party is that you will always get told that it will only lead to a Democrat victory.

No matter how bad and unloved the Republican candidate is (e.g. McCain) the vast majority of conservatives will hold their noses (or delude themselves by focusing on whoever the veep is) and vote for what they claim to be the "lesser of two evils".

A better strategy would be to try to help create a real third liberal party, e.g. Green Party. Every conservative in a solidly blue state should vote for the Green Party candidate, whoever that is.

If you are a conservative in a blue state, voting for Romney will do no one any favors. If, however, enough people vote for the Green Party candidate then that party will get funding next year and will be recognized as an official party. They will most likely get invited to participate in debates, etc. This will siphon off votes from the Democrats and force the Democrat candidates to move further left than they want in the primaries to keep these people on their side.

Once a liberal Green Party is established, we can then think about creating a conservative fourth party to keep the Republicans honest.

[kindred]

The GOP has cast us out. The Republicans are deciding to choose the most liberal candidate in the race. Behind Romney, nut-job Paul carried a large percentage as second place and third place candidate is the next most liberal in the race. Conservatives are not appreciated or wanted by the GOP. If we are more welcome in the Republican Party than we are in the Democratic, it is just barely and just to get our votes. Our issues are now considered an embarassment and we find no support in the GOP.
Amen to that.
The tea party and conservatives therein can only hope that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich would unite as one and overcome the rino GOPs plan to disenfranchise the conservatives vote before the SC primary. The rino right is in cahoots with the liberal left as all rino right Presidents other than Ronald Reagan have been liberal rinos.

[alicewonders]

I posted this graphic during the 2008 election, and sadly, it's as appropriate now as it was then. If Romney is our nominee, the GOP is dead to me. Conservatives should make it their life's mission to get a REAL conservative party going in time for 2016 - cause if Romney is the nominee he will lose.

[Shery]

I’m pretty sure Sarah would not run this year, regardless of the party, but I have felt for some time this is the one year a 3rd party candidate could do it, especially of Sarah Palin. I know lots of women on the Democratic side would jump ship and vote for her. Never before has there been such a sense of abandonment of the party’s standards, not to say we don’t have some good candidates. It’s just that the debates have left them all wounded and bleeding along the roadside. America has no perfect people, never has had, never will. We conservatives are just as bad as any other constituency for listening to “news” and not having discernment, changing our minds. We need to (if there is any future elections) do our own homework and stick with the candidate of our choice. If people can be swayed by this report or that, then we are the deficient ones, not the candidates alone. It looks to me that it is not a small percentage that are the swing vote, but anybody who is not a Romney-bot or a Paul-bot. This does not end well. I realize that when candidates drop out, it changes things, but most people have a 2nd choice automatically, and this year, it seems that the debates have pushed us every which way but straight to the right candidate. This is why I have said for months that the debates should NOT choose our candidate. This election cycle, there are candidates’ records to look at. Anybody can say anything in a debate, look entirely awesome in a debate, but actually be very far from that personally. The couple candidates that have not veered too far from actuality are Rick Santorum and Rick Perry. Many won’t vote for one because he is a Catholic, and the other because he made too many gaffs. Both have stellar records, if we cared to look beyond the Soros accusations being dished out via Ron Paul. Ron Paul is now effectively controlled by Soros and we’d be putting another Soros puppet into the WH if he was elected. Have we not learned enough from this current puppet the evil intents of George Soros? To me, Palin is the only truly passionate conservative that can really kick butt and get the job done, but she’s not running. We must choose the one that is closest to her that is left.

[teenyelliott]

At this point, forget about the President. All we can do is vote conservatives into Congress as much as we can.

If the Congress is conservative it won't matter who "occupies"the white house.

[monocle]

We already have the following parties:

Boston Tea Party
Green Party
Justice Party
Libertarian Party
Party of Socialism and Liberation
Prohibition Party
Reform Party USA
Socialist Party USA
Independent

So what will your proposed twelfth accomplish?

[Proud2BeRight]

If it comes down to Obama vs Romney or (and this is a joke) Obama vs Paul, I will vote third party, write in or leave that box blank.

If the establishment GOP has not gotten the message after the negative message of the RINO McCain’s trouncing or the positive messages of the Tea Party Congressional conservative victories and the most successful Presidency in modern US history, Reagan, they may need an even bigger message.

I think it may be nearing time for a new “Tea Party”.