This country needs a 3rd party

[Shoe]

That people will actually vote for instead being brainwashed by those in power that they only have 2 choices.

Unfortunately, I don't think the general public will ever be able to reach this conclusion on their own.

EDIT: Sorry, please move to the politics forum if this is in the wrong forum.

[recondite7]

The way are government is set up makes it virtually impossible to have anything besides a two party system.

If you want an explantation why this occurs talk to a political scientist, but I assure you it is correct.

[Gumbo]

Libertarian Party - Smaller Government, Less Taxes, Less Laws.


Platform:

As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.

We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.

Consequently, we defend each person's right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.

In the following pages we have set forth our basic principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those principles.

These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands.

[MOMOwheeler]

To find out if you might be a Libertarian, take the worlds smallest political quiz - http://www.theadvocates.org/

[OmahaGal]

Ok, maybe I'm thinking in too simplistic terms b/c I'm ignorant of polysci schemantics.

BUT, I would really like to see a strong 3rd party, but not more than THREE as I think that would detract from the whole political process and become too 'special interest' oriented and that would in effect create even more divisiveness. Right now, I don't see much difference in the 2 major parties except in the extereme outer fringes. Both parties are willing to sell out America and strive for government with a capital G.

Why couldn't we have a ballot limited to THREE parties with voters putting a weighting factor to bring it as close to a majority vote as possible. I would love to see a Libertarian candidate be given a really opportunity to educate the American public by giving it a platform. A new voting process would help to facilitate this.

For example [voting]: If I really want a libertarian candidate, that person would get my #1 vote, with a #2 choice noted as well. In this way, we would not have a 'Ross Perot' factor and we would probably get closer to what we want as a majority in a democratic society. Too often people feel like telling off their party and offer the 3rd unlikely party their vote. If they could temper that a little, it is possible to get a truer sense of what the public wants versus a situation where an opposition party feels they have received a 'public mandate'instead of receiving their results due to an anti vote.

3rd party politicing as it stands now seems to be an avenue for the 'other' candidate to gain leverage against a better opponent because the noise created becomes a welcome diversion from real issues.

Three choices on the ballot would force people to consider an alternative choice in the process giving them some peace of mind in how and why they voted. I may feel more compelled to vote for a libertarian if I felt it wouldn't hurt a candidate and bring me something worse knowing I could cast a '2nd' vote for my second choice and have it factored into the equation.

[Oberonn]

The Libertarian Party has made great strides with getting their candidates on many ballots but that is the easy part.

Too many people will not vote for a third party candidate because they feel there is no chance of the third party candidate winning and they do not want their vote to be "wasted".

The Libertarian party leadership is isolationist and totally anti-war which will never satisfy the American people.

[AncientPC]

[ QUOTE ]
The Libertarian party leadership is isolationist and totally anti-war which will never satisfy the American people.

[/ QUOTE ]

With Bush's handling of Iraq and his non-stop "patriotism" brainwashing people are beginning to feel different.

The problem is that our current system of government is structured to support only two parties. An easy example of this is the electoral college (awarding whole states despite if state is 90% Rep or 51% rep) and national debates (bipartisan committee controls who gets to go on).

I line voted libertarian during this year's mid-term elections (except for governor).

[Gobias Ind.]

"Don't blame me, I voted for Kotos."

[highland]

[ QUOTE ]

Too many people will not vote for a third party candidate because they feel there is no chance of the third party candidate winning and they do not want their vote to be "wasted".


[/ QUOTE ]

instant-runoff voting fixes this problem perfectly. Amazing that no one in the US has heard of it [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

wikipedia explanation

cheers,
-highland

[recondite7]

exactly true highland, the lack of this makes a 3rd party have almost no chance at all in an election.