Question about how much you guys study...

How many of you can name at least 3 third-party candidates who ran for presidency in 2012 without googling it before answering?

Just curious as I think a lot of people's complaints about the government and partisan ship could be handled with a voice outside of the monopoly.

A second question, who watched the 3rd party debates? Anyone here at all watch them?

My initial guess is maybe 1 or 2 of you did, which is pretty sad considering you're supposed to be electing a leader that represents your ideals, yet you still go with the 'lesser evil' mentality.

If anyone wants me to provide information about these strangers you've never heard of, just ask.

 

Though I pay attention to candidates outside the two party system...I do not take them seriously.

I have come to the point that it has been difficult to decide between them, until the entrance of tea party mentality into a party I once respected....and usually voted for. Paul was an interesting experiment....as was Green.

But I will not throw my vote away out of imagined hopefulness.

 

I can name two. Green and Libertarian. I did watch one debate that was being done over the internet. I liked it, save for the technical issues.

 

If everyone 'threw their vote away', as you say, we might have an actual fair election. Something to think about. No one I knew favored either candidate from the 2 mainstream parties and most were just like, 'Damn...I either vote on this one issue or this other one issue'. Which is stupid and counterproductive to having a harmonious government that represents the people.

 

Meh, I have yet to see any third party candidate that represents my values better than the Tea Party wing of the GOP. Thus I don't really have any interest in third parties presently.

 

We don't have a plurality system. 3rd parties will not work. A different set of two parties or factions that struggle between the two main parties will form left vs right coalitions. It is just how are country is setup. The greens have gotten more done in the democrat party then in the Green Party etc...

 

While I can agree with your position, until a third party gives me a very good reason to vote for them....I cannot spend my single dollar on the show.

I am currently evaluating who to vote AGAINST.

 

And you will suffer. No one's answered yet...can you name 3 third-party candidates without google. The answer seems to be no. And this is what's wrong.

 

I watched the 3rd Party Debates, and I always review the 3rd party candidates for a viable win.

If I saw a 3rd party candidate who looked like he/she could win, I'd vote for them, just to open up the field for 3rd parties, even if I didn't wholly agree with the platform of the 3rd party Candidate.

Back in the Real World, voting for the spoiler usually puts the Democrats in Power.

My number one priority in voting is defeating the Democratic Party and the Radical Obama-Wing and their transformation and BLT agenda.

Because of the need to Defeat the Democrats, I sincerely doubt I'll vote for any other than the Republican Party for the remaining 20-30 years of my life.

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And thus the defeatist outlook creates defeat.

 

This, in the context given, is a silly, banal comment.

What are those who oppose the Democrats supposed to do? Focus of Voting for 3rd parties to ensure the Democrats a win?

Defeat the Dems first, then look at options.

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Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson are the only third party candidates I care about.

I didn't watch the 3rd party debates because I have terribly slow internet.

 

It's not a problem with us, though. The fact of the matter is, unless a third party can legitimately get a good 50% of the vote, then it's a bad idea to vote for them in a first-past-the-post system, because in doing so, you are splitting the vote. We saw this in the 2000 election, where the greens, who were largely ideologically aligned with democrats, ended up with 5% of the vote for their candidate. If those 5% had voted differently, we wouldn't have had Bush for 8 years, so they basically (*)(*)(*)(*)ed themselves with their vote. There's no point in knowing Jill Stein's positions because every vote for Green is a vote that could have gone against republican. There's no point in know Gary Johnson's positions because every vote for Libertarian is a vote that could have gone against democrat. Seeing the problem? This is a great explanation.

 

There were about a dozen on the Florida ballot in 2012. No, I don't know who they are, but reading most of their party titles is enough to know that they are fringe candidates.

 

The problem is that Third parties pretty much just guarantee that the major party that they have the most in common with will lose. It's the worst thing you can do for your own viewpoint. I love the Green party, wish they were more viable--gives the Republicans a better chance

 

The longest running third party is by far the Libertarians. The only time libertarians got more than 5% was when they were hijacked by Ross Perot who gave us eight years of the lecher in chief. The problem for libertians is that the overwhelming majority of those who are socially liberal (aka irresponsible)
aren't any more fiscally prudent than the are socially prudent and vice versa.

 

It's not a war. It's a vote. It's proven that the two party system just fights each other just to fight. So what? You want to see a fight? Go watch boxing.

Voting for the 2 parties because you 'want to make sure that other guy gets defeated' seems counter productive because only one aspect of your vote is being used. Whereas when I vote 3rd party, I want both the 'main guys' defeated...and I really like a majority of the proposals of the person I voted for.

Here's a list of 100 things they agree on or have near identical policies on:
http://ivn.us/2012/11/06/100-ways-republicans-are-just-like-democrats/

You'll notice a strong correlation to 'screw average guy' legislation they agree on. You vote 'against this one guy', you're just putting a slightly different variation of them in office.

 

Hmm... of the top of my head, I think there was Jill Stein (GPUSA), Buddy Roemer (Reform Party), Stewart Alexander (SPUSA), Rocky Anderson (Justice Party), Gary Johnson (LP), and Virgil Goode (CP).

I watched one of them, and if not for the contents of her proposed platform I would have abandoned Stein in favor of Anderson after watching it. On the other hand, I try not to give the debates too much weight. They seem to reward and punish candidates based on their respective levels of charisma - something of no real significance to me - while failing offer a complete overview of what a leader wants to do for the people if elected into office, and why.

Anyway, interesting thread!

 

I like the general concept of 3rd & 4th ... parties, the more the better... Unless it allows a group of totalitarian racially bigoted fascists to take over the country.

Obama, Eric Holder, Valerie Jarrett, Andy Van Jones, ... The whole gaggle of radicals which now controls the Democratic Party have shown themselves by their deeds, policies and statements to be what Rev. Wright was in the Open.

Time for the lot of them to go, then we can look multi-party options.

Put the fire out, then start discussing what color of wall-paper for the rebuild.

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The arrangement in general is silly. The reason we have two parties in the main today is because those two parties have proven to be remarkably adept at coopting popular third party ideas. The Republicans are the party of Social conservatives and fiscal prudence, The Democrats are the party of Social liberalism and fiscal insanity brought on by a desire to regulate almost every other human activity that doesn't involve sex or drugs although the latter is debateable given that most of our federal drug laws were written by Democrats.

 

Those are parties not candidates, Ill help you though: Gary Johnson was the Libertarian candidate you "watched" on the internet.

 

And Jill Stein was the other one and Ursula Razum was the Green Party candidate for my district.

 

I'm glad you had enough time to Google it.

 

Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Virgil Goode.

 

Last I checked there were about ten third parties in New York State Alone. Wikipaedia lists over 20. In aggregate they get less than 1/3 of the vote either of the two major parties get.