Posted on 12/04/2006 10:01:36 AM PST by NapkinUser
To be honest I don't trust McCain either, again there is something I don't like, but if he is the candidate I will support him. I'm not going to waste my vote on either the Losertarian Party or the Constitpation Party....
I swear I think I have that!
You're kidding? Wonder why Amazon keeps back-ordering it?
Oh, you are absolutely smart to not trust McCain... I only hope people actually show up in the primary season to vote for someone other than McCain... like I say until I'm blue in the face, we change directions during the Primary, not the general election.
Well a lot of people needs to hear that message..
The historical record supports your claim. Nader's third party candidacy drew off enough votes to bring about Al Gore's defeat in 2000. The Perot voters in 1992 and 1996 would have probably broken 2:1 in favor of the elder Bush and Bob Dole. Had that occurred, Clinton might have been defeated.
This country has not had a successful new party since 1856, when the Republicans replaced the Whigs as a successful opposition party. However, third parties do have an ideological impact. The People's (Populist) Party in the 1890s and the Progressive and Socialist Parties in the early 1900s drew from the same base of small farmers and urban workers that had been the Democrats' base since the days of Thomas Jefferson. In response, the Democrats shifted from being a party of weak Federal power, sound money, and low taxes to becoming a centralist, inflationary, and tax and spend party. Grover Cleveland, the last Jeffersonian President, was more conservative than Calvin Coolidge. A mere 40 years later, Franklin Roosevelt was our first modern liberal President.
The threat of a third party on the right flank could have the effect of restraining a Republican lurch to the left. Alan Keyes or Tom Tancredo may never win, but if they have ballot position in 50 states and a decent war chest, they could easily draw 5% of the vote in a race between Hillary and a RINO. Given the tightness of the last four Presidential elections, 5% would be more than enough to ensure a Democrat victory. The GOP leadership no doubt realizes this, and will hopefully take measures, other than screaming "sit down and shut up" at the conservatives.
What is more disconcerting about our party is in an article in our paper this morning (from a WaPO editorial) which bears out the poll Neal Boortz quoted, that the libertarian arm of the GOP is growing and at the same time becoming disenchanted with the conservative wing of the party... they also feel they are larger and don't have to bend to the conservatives any longer. It went on to point out the GOP has been virtually eliminated in many Northern states and is fast losing ground in the West and parts of the South.
When the Christian Right did step outside of the realm of social issues, it often stumbled, much as the Prohibitionists did in the early 20th Century, when they supported big government measures like the establishment of a central bank or railroad regulation in exchange for the Progressives' support of Prohibition. In like manner, the Christian Right endorsed President Bush's "faith based" social programs, even though they represented an additional expansion of Federal power. Several, including the recently fired director of the Christian Coalition, attempted an outreach to the environmentalists, even though such people are anathema to the mineral, lumber, farming, and ranching interests.
An appeal to the principles of the Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1970s may help the GOP regain ground in the West.
Not a bad analysis.
It points, also, to the genius of Reagan: he embodied all aspects of conservatism: westernism, social conservatism, southern populism, Wall Street supply side conservatism, and aggressive foreign policy/cold war neoconservatism.
That is why he won.
The next successful GOP leader will need to do the same.
So far, I don't see any volunteers.
The witch is already assured of election.. A portion of 20 to 30 million legal and illegal aliens VOTING(democrat) will guarantee it..
You know like in 2006.. 2006 was just openers.. Any that say other are in denial.. Voting demographics in this country are ALREADY skewed.. not WILL BE...
I don't mind Gilchrist or Keyes. However, I would rather not let Corsi have a national platform from which to tilt at phantom NAFTA superhighways.
I second that: the GOP will just have to (learn this lesson, over and over again I fear) that we should not be a moderate party, we shuld be the Conservative party and support conservatives. (ALA They should have let their distrust of Conservatives DIE once the Primary was OVER, but NO; just goes to show that "moderates" have true RR Conservatives and are willing to be vindictive to prove their hatred!
Yeah someone like Conservative leader in teh House Representative Mike Pence.
Apparently, and appropriately, nobody denied this.
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