3rd Party Candidate Choice?

CriticalThought said:

There can't really be a third party choice. The Republican and Democratic parties may not agree on much but they did agree on passing laws and using lawsuits to make it virtually impossible for viable alternative parties to emerge and threaten their power.

In my dream world, I would pick a Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush ticket.

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I'm not saying you're wrong - I've just never heard of such a thing. I always thought that in america, there were checks, balances, and laws that prevented the imposing of any kind of restrictions. Why should you have to be a member of any "party" at all to run for president? Remember when we used to say "hey, this is america!". I'm not sure if that's such a good thing anymore.

Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party. Personally, I'd prefer that they'd nominated the same candidate that they did four years ago, but he's still a better option than anyone else out there so far as I'm concerned.

VanceMack said:

Third parties exist because reps and dems have so completely abandoned the country in the name of party. I have no illusions about a third party candidate winning the presidency. However...IF a significant number of people...20% of those that actually voted...were to vote for ANY candidate other than the two main parties it would serve to wake BOTH parties up a little bit. That will not happen. The majority of people that claim to be otheriwse oriented will go in ditufully and mark their ballot straight ticket for either GOP or Democrat. The '99% will vote democrat. 'Tea Party' voters will vote republican. Nothing will change.

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This is why third parties are unfit to govern anyway. If they can't see the necessity of changing the Constitution to allow a Presidential runoff, they are not very practical and would waste our time on side issues. Why didn't Perot run against Bush for governor of Texas first, establishing his credibility? Why didn't Buchanan and Nader run for senator first? It seems like an ego trip if these candidates refuse to try to win the local elections before going national.

George Wallace should have associated racial issues with class warfare on the majority and come up with other White working class issues. My racist aunt wouldn't vote for him, saying, "What he wants to do to them he also wants to do to us." So he came on as being only against the Democrats. Another thing he proved, just like the Greens, is that one-issue candidates are unfit to govern.