[Vision2020] third party power

[Joe Campbell]

Great points Ron.

Isn't this what happened in the Bush-Gore election? The Green Party focused on Al Gore (ironically, the only presidential candidate I know of to write a book on the environment) and made the environment a campaign issue. If I were Republican, I would love this strategy. As I see it, it didn't work out so well.

Getting back to one of Ron's points, liberals and progressives are not unified by any single ideology. Some of us are feminists, some of us are environmentalists, some of us are gay, some of us are Muslim, some of us are poor. 

This is true of Republicans too of course, but it is different. The two (intersecting) groups of fiscal and religious conservatives includes enough people to win an election.

On Oct 22, 2012, at 3:59 PM, Ron Force <rforce2003 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> As the Republicans have shown, you do your egg-cracking during the primaries. For the Democrats, however, that would take either a unified philosophy, or a lot of money behind one position (a la the Tea Party). The Liberal Democrats have neither.
> 
>  
> Ron Force
> Moscow Idaho USA
> From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
> To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> 
> Cc: Moscow Vision2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com> 
> Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 1:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] third party power
> 
> Without doing this, what incentive does Obama (or the next Democratic candidate for President) have to include your pet issue in his or her platform?  There is a real danger to the two-party system that is becoming clearer and clearer every year.
> 
> Sometimes when you want to make an omelet you have to crack a few eggs.
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> From: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
> To: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> 
> Cc: Moscow Vision2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com> 
> Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 1:24 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] third party power
> 
> And a somewhat liberal third party candidate would attract votes that would otherwise be cast for Obama, ultimately making the election, and a tenancy at 1600 Pennsylvania, attainable for Mitt Romney.
> 
> No thanks!
> 
> 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 Oct 22, 2012, at 1:05 PM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> I just thought of a way third parties could have a larger say in what is going on in the political scene.
>> 
>> If the leadership of one of the third parties (let's pick on the Green Party) thought that their issues weren't being taken seriously by the Democratic Party (such as Global Warming), then if they had fortitude they could reach out to all the Dems that are environmentalists at heart but vote Dem anyway and suggest that they all vote Green Party.  Basically, they would be saying "let's throw this election in order to get ourselves taken seriously.  If the Dems want us back, they have to make our pet issue one of their main focuses."
>> 
>> This way, they can make use of the tendency of "first past the post" election systems to become predominantly two-party systems to their advantage.  They would have to reach out to enough of the Dems to cause the election to be lost.  They would have to be willing to throw the occasional election to be taken seriously, though.  Long-term vs. short-term thinking.
>> 
>> Of course, the Libertarian Party could do the same thing, focusing on civil liberties for example.  You get the idea.
>> 
>> Paul
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
> 
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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