Warning: Another political rant by a Stark.
I don't think that 3rd parties are the answer. Instead if people actually participated in the primary elections, then they would have a choice on who the major candidates will be in the general election. Instead, most people just wait until the general election, after the major candidates have been decided by the primary election. Then when they don't like the choices in
the general election, they whine and complain and start looking to third party candidates. But if the third party candidates has no real possibility of winning. (Which has been true since 1912) Then any vote for them is actually a vote for the major candidate that you certainly would not vote for. When was the last time a 3rd party candidate even took 2nd place in the general presidential election? Answer: 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt ran on a third party ticket.
So if you want to make a difference and want good candidates available to choose from in the general election. Get involved in the early primary and caucuses. Join a party and run for the delegate positions. Then you can attend conventions and vote on candidates who 9 times out of 10 are chosen there before they even get to the ballot. Don't just wait until the general election, when the choice on who the candidates are has been made for you.
I don't think that 3rd parties are the answer. Instead if people actually participated in the primary elections, then they would have a choice on who the major candidates will be in the general election. Instead, most people just wait until the general election, after the major candidates have been decided by the primary election. Then when they don't like the choices in
the general election, they whine and complain and start looking to third party candidates. But if the third party candidates has no real possibility of winning. (Which has been true since 1912) Then any vote for them is actually a vote for the major candidate that you certainly would not vote for. When was the last time a 3rd party candidate even took 2nd place in the general presidential election? Answer: 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt ran on a third party ticket.So if you want to make a difference and want good candidates available to choose from in the general election. Get involved in the early primary and caucuses. Join a party and run for the delegate positions. Then you can attend conventions and vote on candidates who 9 times out of 10 are chosen there before they even get to the ballot. Don't just wait until the general election, when the choice on who the candidates are has been made for you.
4 comments:
My problem is that I don't think the two major parties work IMHO. Yes you are correct that if we bind ourselves to a party during the primary election we can help shape that battlefield, however I really dislike the fact that, in Utah, the Republicans require you to join their party in order to vote in the primary. All it does is pad their numbers and make them look more important than they really are.
Another issue I have with both parties is they are too alike than people realize. Especially when it comes to holding their hands out to the contributors who hold more power than the people do on some days. The Democrats and the Republicans have been feeding from the same troughs for years. Then when they get into office, they do the things that the parties did not allegedly stand for. Look back at the last eight years and tell me that the Republicans didn't tax and spend as much as the Democrats did. The sly wink and nod method of control is much easier when you only have one other party to convince to sign onto your extra earmarks. If we had multiple parties, then the power may be distributed a little bit more evenly. As our Canadian commenter has shown, it may delay things a little bit more, but I would feel more comfortable knowing the power isn't with two highly corruptible parties.
In Carl's perfect world, all candidates would have to stand on their own platforms running as independents. This way people would vote according to their own values instead of protest votes or not wanting to let the evil (insert party name here) win.
I have to agree with you that in the last 8 years that the GOP had control of congress and they did spend like a democrat and I think this was one of the reasons why they lost power in 2006. Unfortunately the democrats continued the spending practices and will soon increase our taxes to pay for the increased spending.
I respectfully disagree with the reason why the republican primary is closed. The GOP does not need any help to increase their numbers in Utah. The real reason is so that the GOP nomine is selected the actual members of the GOP. Unfortunately we see people, on both sides of the isle, who vote in their opposing party's election in an attempt to sabotage their party. Example: Just this year when the democrats were trying to decide between Obama & Hillary. Rush Limbaugh encouraged all GOP members to vote in the open election for Hillary so to cause conflict and strife within the Democratic Party. It worked and for reasons like this, the GOP has a closed primary. Not because they are trying to pad their numbers, but so that actual GOP members chose their candidate.
I would love to see your perfect world, as it looks better than our own. But until the majority of voters do their homework and find the distinct differences between each of the candidates, which all candidates have even today. Then the political party system will continue as people know parties better than candidates and so rely on the party system rather than the candidate system.
This has been a good discussion and I look forward to future ones.
So I guess the question is, how does an independent vote in the primaries without joining a party? You've got a catch 22 here.
Its hard to be a fence sitter in today's politics. But the good news is that you can join a party 1 year and then change to something else later if you want. You can change as many times as you want.
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