I'm finished with the two party system.
...and I don't care about hearing lectures on wasting my vote. I feel like I wasted it the past 8 years.
Not one of Noonan's better efforts.
Third parties are a great idea: Green, Progressive, Communist, Pacifist...
Good luck to 'em. I hope they attract a lot of voters
Unfortunately, I must agree with you. However, the current two parties have survived since the Civil War. Splitting a party is (correctly) seen as a sure way to hand control over to the other side since we do not have a parliamentary system here.
I disagree with Peggy here. That "trick" will keep working as long as humans are humans.
If a serious third party emerged with a credible presidential candiate, official Washington would work triple overtime to defame, discredit and destroy him. You think the media is tough on Bush - what do you think they would do if any true advocate of restrained spending and smaller government actually had a chance to win an election?
Seemed???
He was and you Peggy are sounding like his sister
How stupid. In politics you take the best of what one can get, and try to push the mainstream party in a favorable direction. This all just plays into the hands of the liberal democrats, whose election would be a disaster.
The globalists are the biggest losers. Multiculturalism was first started by corporations (free marketeers) and expoused by intellects (internationalists) in their quest to breakdown borders for the flow of goods, services, materials and last and not least labor. This is why PC is adopted by both institutions to breakdown American nationalism and Euro-centric culture/sensitivities. A funny thing happen that put the brakes on the process, it is call 9/11 and the Iraqi War. 9/11 galvanized the conservatives on border issues and illegal immigration, and the lefts/MSM highlighting the negatives of the Iraqi war is causing independents, liberals and conservatives to become wary of overseas wars and involvements. Neo isolationism will form part of the third party agenda. Recent op eds in the NY Times is cautioning the Dem left that their demonization of GWB foreign policy may jeopardize the Dem globalistss' desires to have the US become part of the internationalist world "government"
The divisor in politics is special interests. That is what makes immigration such a tough issue. In reality neither party wants to see anything done. The Democrats are courting the illegal immigrants for political power and the Republicans are courting the law breaking companies hiring and attracting illegals. No one represents the middle class who works hard and plays by the rules and understands our elected officeholders must put the sovereignity of this country before their special interest groups. I am not optimistic about a viable third party, but I would like to see truly open primaries and doing away with the ridiculous media driven New Hampshire and Iowa presidential system. Bush running against Kerry, one Ivy League Skull and Crossboner against another. If a voter is from a populous state is not too old, they probably have never voted in a Presidential primary where the outcome was not already decided and therefore their vote meant anything.
What a drama queen.
Something to consider:
The last time a new political party came into power we had the Civil War.
There are a lot of good individual Republicans worthy of your support, however. Of course, I agree with you ultimately. The RNC is a joke.
Peggy does her usual great job of capturing the essence of the problem, that the elites in DC don't seem to understand the problems of, or the angst among the voters. There is a disconnect from reality and a widespread belief in their own ability to understand what is good for us peasants regardless of how we might to approach or solve a problem.
The problem is gov't itself, as our founders so rightly understood. They would have a difficult time understanding the beast that "we the people" have allowed to grow in Washington. The growth of the bueracracy and its self-sustaining masters have many roots, but at the bottom, WE are to blame. We have allowed the ideas posited by Marx on political structure, and, by Nietsche on culture to permeate our once great society and rot it from the inside out. In operation, we are beginning more and more to resemble the end of the republican era of Rome with its ravenous mob and unprincipled senatorial families.
Who now stands forth as an exemplar of how to make the changes that need be made to return us to what once made us great? In surveying the current political landscape, it is difficult to find any individual who meets the qualifications. The job is Herculean, and the rewards are miniscule at best. FR is one place where the roots and ideas of a functional third party can be found, but the structure is not there. Additionally, as tough as it is to say, in this age of personality, someone of Washington's stature and personal integrity is needed to coalesce any movement and give it any chance of success.
The two parties in Washington will stop at nothing to prevent the rise of a national third party.
You want to see true bi-partisanship?
Start up a national third party and watch the fireworks. Nothing motivates or scares the crap out of a politician like upsetting the status quo.
Make no mistake...I'm all for it....but it ain't a never gonna happen.
ping
It certainly is true that neither party represents our interests. The whole Washington establishment has become a party unto itself in many ways. Just look at how Hastert stood up for Jefferson the other day on the FBI raid. Congress is looking out for itself, both collectively and as individuals. The only difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans will take longer to destroy the country.
I'm not certain that the answer is a third party though. If the Democrats split up the Republicans will be strengthened and have no motivation to change. If the Republicans are split up then we will be stuck with Democrats. It's sorta like pick your poison at that point. One thing I am sure of is that is time to to start talking about term limits again. It's time to end the concept of a career politician.
A lot of people have a feeling something is coming soon. Of course something is always coming, but being nervous about it before it gets here is not a good way to be.
"Nancy Pelosi seems to be pretty much in favor of anything that hurts Republicans, and Ken Mehlman is in favor of anything that works against Democrats."
That's just moral equivalence and a cop-out. Mehlman does not equal Pelosi on any reasonable standard of measurement. I agree that Pelosi does appear to oppose just for the sake of opposition, but I do not agree that Mehlman is equally guilty of that alleged crime and it simply won't do for Peggy to make the assertion wholly unsupported by any facts.
Look, Hastert has played the buffoon recently, Frist looks ineffective and hapless given the nature of the Senate and Bush has continued to struggle to articulate any sort of vision for the remaining years of his Administration, appearing to stumble from one fire to the next. I'm not happy with the national GOP.
But the alternative is simply unthinkable to anyone who cares. The moderate dems like Lieberman are being run right out of that party. The nutroots like Kos and Atrios increasingly pull the policy strings of the only viable political entity other than the GOP and, if I have anything to say about, I won't be governed by politicians who are in thrall to the extreme left wing kooks.
Nobody has to like it and there are ways to try and improve the GOP, but voting third party and helping to elect a Dem Congress and Hilary in 2008 ain't the way.
At this point, continuing to vote for a lot of these Republicans is a lot like a woman who'd send a Valentine's card to her rapist.