“So maybe it’s not surprising that, when presented with a well-known independent candidate, many voters consider voting for him.”
True. Since a choice between career politicians, Democrat or Republican is damn near no choice. Democrat wins, we the people lose. Republican wins, we the people lose just a little less. So many of us have for years, voted for the Republican as ‘lesser of two evils’.
That said, I will always vote for the most conservative on the ballot whether Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Constitution Party-er.
This is pure nonsense. The person who says I vote for the man, not the party. Truly a canard. Now time for the facts. I have been voting since 1982. I have never missed an election. I have always, without exception, voted the straight GOP ticket in the general election and have never regretted a single vote I have ever cast. I live in CA. All Democrats out here are Marxists. Maybe there are some conservative Democrats still around in the Deep South and some other regions in the country, but here in CA, there ain’t no such varmint. They are ALL Marxists here. No exceptions. Also here in CA, third party candidates rarely make any difference at all and only serve to siphon off votes from the major party candidates. Does that mean every Republican candidate I have ever voted for was perfect? No. Of course not. Far from it. But without exception, every GOP candidate I have voted for the past 32 years was VASTLY superior to the Dem candidate. No question about it. My only realistic chance for advancing the conservative cause is within the GOP primary and I never miss an opportunity to do just that. But the only way I can impact the general election to my way of thinking is to vote the straight party GOP ticket in the general election. There is nothing to think about. Nothing to ponder. Nothing to debate. It’s just the facts and they way politics works in this country. Nothing in life is perfect, least of all politics. We have to work with what we have in order to make a difference.