[Vision2020] third party candidates

[Paul Rumelhart]

Since the number of votes that a candidate has won by in the last few 
elections has been small, then even a small turnout by third party 
candidates *should* worry the Democratic and Republican Party top 
brass.  Theoretically, they would change their stances on various 
political issue in order to woo those third party voters back, since the 
races are so close that it really could matter.  Plus, if one or more 
third parties get 5% of the vote, then they are official parties that 
will be guaranteed to be on the ballots in future elections without 
having to petition each state individually.  They will also have access 
to some of the funds that the two major parties have access to.

A two party-dominated system leads only to divisiveness and 
disenfranchisement of voters who care about any issues that both parties 
agree on.  Three or more more-or-less equal parties leads to consensus 
building and politicking to woo voters.  Which system would you prefer?

Paul

On 11/04/2012 01:21 AM, Scott Dredge wrote:
> Paul - I used to want a 3rd party (the common sense party), but I 
> don't see how it would solve what you're calling 'issues that are 
> never brought up because both sides have agreed to screw the public on 
> them'.  Reason being that unless this 3rd party is larger than the the 
> Republicans & Democrats combined, they'll not have sufficient votes to 
> counteract the alliance.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2012 23:48:40 -0700
> From: godshatter at yahoo.com
> To: thansen at moscow.com
> CC: Vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] third party candidates
>
>
> Thanks for being part of the problem.
>
> If, like me, you care about issues that are never brought up because 
> both sides have agreed to screw the public on them, then think about 
> voting third-party as an alternative to not voting at all.
>
> Paul
>
> On 11/03/2012 04:38 PM, Tom Hansen wrote:
>
>     Excellent suggestion, Mr. Rumelhart!
>
>     Now, I'm gonna expect all you "smaller government" types to vote for Gary Johnson (Libertarian).  I mean it's only right, right Mr. Rumelhart?
>
>     As for me, I'm gonna vote for Obama, 'cuz Michelle Obama is H-O-T, and we haven't had a hot lookin' first lady since . . .
>
>
>
>     Jackie Kennedy
>
>     Pro patria!
>
>     Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .
>
>     "Moscow Cares"
>     http://www.MoscowCares.com
>
>     Tom Hansen
>     Moscow, Idaho
>
>     "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students.  The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."
>
>     - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
>
>
>
>
>     On Nov 3, 2012, at 4:22 PM, Paul Rumelhart<godshatter at yahoo.com>  <mailto:godshatter at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>
>         I would just like to remind people out there to take a look at the third party candidates that are on your particular ballot for the Presidential race.  For Idaho, it's Rocky Anderson (Independent), Virgil Goode (Constitution), Gary Johnson (Libertarian), and Jill Stein (Independent).
>
>         If you live in a State that is a shoe-in for one of the main two candidates, for or against, consider voting third party.  In my opinion, breaking the two-party stranglehold on the political system is one of the best things we could do for this country.  It would do wonders to break the polarisation of our citizenship that is causing a lot of harm, it would mean that certain issues that both parties currently in power agree upon would have to be re-evaluated if third parties were stronger in elections (to avoid losing votes to those third-party candidates), and it would force a multidimensional look at political topics instead of trying to shoe-horn everything into one axis, liberal or conservative.
>
>         Paul
>
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