Running as an independent or 3rd party candidate is like walking the plank, the outcome is always certain and never positive
Ron Paul understands it. His son Rand Paul understands it. Peter Schiff understands it. Even though they are Libertarians, they understand that statistically they don’t have a snowball’s chance in Hades if they run as anything other than a Republican (or a Democrat). People are disenfranchised with both Parties right now, and rightfully so. The Democratic Party has been hijacked by Progressive Liberals who hate freedom and capitalism. The GOP has been hijacked by squishy moderates who do not represent the ideology of the party. We’re not going to leave America just because we’ve got some rotten apples in charge, and we shouldn’t abandon the Parties either.
Those who blame the Democrats and the Republicans for our current plight have forgotten that the parties failed because many of us failed to show up for election after election in the kind of numbers that would carry the day. The moderates and the liberals HAVE been showing up and that is reflected in the kinds of politicians the Democrats and the Republicans decide to put out there.
Those of you who have heard me speak on this subject understand that we are teaching you how to get and stay involved to win our elections at the localist of all levels. If you get involved early enough at the local level then you can help get a good candidate into the primaries, rather than just waiting until the primaries come around and find out you are stuck with crappy choice A and crappy choice B because you didn’t do your part to get a good candidate into the primaries. We The People ARE the government and we can no longer abrogate our responsibilities and blame the Democrats and the Republicans. I hate to be the one to break the news, but we are the Democrats and the Republicans that helped bring us to where we are today by not doing your part to prevent it. I am equally guilty of that charge.
Now however, I’m doing my part to try to make up for lost time. But now let me make something else crystal clear. Time is short. The liberal left has made gained some serious ground towards implementing their socialist agenda. We don’t have time to field Libertarian, Constitutional, or Independent candidates. Most states have made that incredibly difficult to get names on the ballot. They require you to petition to have your name added to the ballot county by county and each county has slightly different requirements that need to be met, and trust me–it’s a lot of work and we just don’t have the time.
Combine that with the fact that 3rd party candidates and Independent candidates historically receive less than 10% of the vote–never enough to win. The only two notable exceptions I can think of recently are Jesse Ventura and Joe Lieberman. When an independent or third party candidate enters the race, 99 times out of 100 they split the conservative vote. In the end we are left with the liberal left-wing candidate as the victor because we were so stuck on voting third party or independent. If you really want a conservative candidate to win, convince the best candidates to run as Democrats or Republicans (depending on what the dominant party is in your area) and do your part in the early going to make sure they win the primary election. That’s where you make a difference. I’m not done making this case. Stay tuned for a litany of additional reasons why not to run as or vote 3rd party or independent.
Comments
I appreciate your thoughtful comments and look forward to hearing more. I’m finally catching on to the “Primaries” strategy.
The only reason the democrat and republican parties are needed is to use their ballot access. Otherwise, they are worthless–broken beyond repair. As an independent-but-registered-republican, I’m using the ultra conservative groups to vet candidates–without regard to party label, though most are republicans. I’m tired of voting for the lesser of two (or 3, or 4, or 5) evils in the primaries. I want to vote for the candidate that I can enthusiastically support, probably the one whom others believe has a snowball’s chance in Hades of winning the primary. There are lots of conservative republicans out there–look for them! You probably won’t find them listed in your local GOP newsletter.
Mary – get involved – try to become a precinct chairman in your local precinct.
Then you have a huge say in who gets put on the ballot!
What an endorsement of Icaucus and Ipoliticom. What we have to face is that for this election cycle we are NOT going to correct all America’s woes. There are a few races in which a glaringly conservative candidate is not available. We have several in Florida.
After the primary, then what? While we may not work for a candidate we have not endorsed, we may still need to vote for Republican crappy choice A over Democrat crappy choice B.
In those races, I am advising our TEA Party (not the third party) to vote the Republican candidate
We glory in and consider great victory when we have endorsed a truly conservative candidate.
Please all Floridians take a look at Bernie DeCastro (www.electbernie.com). He was running as a Independent Conservative but was advised to change to the republican party for reasons stated above. But everyone needs to know that he is a true conservative. More conservative than Marco Rubio or Charlie Crist. On his website he ask if you are a conservative or a republican. Most people say conservative and I am the same . I am conservative before republican and thats how we should vote. Get to know the candidate and question is he/she really a conservative? God Bless and let all work together to take our country back. We have to do it this year.