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Are You Registered With, Or Otherwise A Part Of, A Third Party?

Are You Registered With, Or Otherwise A Part Of, A Third Party?


  • Total voters
    46
For years I was actually registered Republican here in Kansas so I could vote for moderates in the primaries. However, since Brownback has purged almost all the moderates, there is no point in it. I am too pragmatic to register third party. Like it or not, in the USA, we have 2 parties: Republican and Democratic. Once in a great while an independent gets elected, but 99.9% of the time, your choice is either a Republican or a Democrat.

One might argue that since Kansas is such a red state, someone that might would vote Democrat could just register with the Green Party and support them, but from a practical standpoint, they will never win anything here, so I would rather support a Moderate Republican Candidate in a state or local election that I might agree with half the time, then throw away my vote on some Green or Libertarian Candidate and the moderate candidate lose to some total nutjob on the far right.
 
I frequently vote libertarian, but I am not registered with any party.
 
For years I was actually registered Republican here in Kansas so I could vote for moderates in the primaries. However, since Brownback has purged almost all the moderates, there is no point in it. I am too pragmatic to register third party. Like it or not, in the USA, we have 2 parties: Republican and Democratic. Once in a great while an independent gets elected, but 99.9% of the time, your choice is either a Republican or a Democrat.

One might argue that since Kansas is such a red state, someone that might would vote Democrat could just register with the Green Party and support them, but from a practical standpoint, they will never win anything here, so I would rather support a Moderate Republican Candidate in a state or local election that I might agree with half the time, then throw away my vote on some Green or Libertarian Candidate and the moderate candidate lose to some total nutjob on the far right.
Sometimes I halfway wish the republicans would run a far right candidate just to see what happens....

Edit: For president, I mean.
 
i wouldn't be registered with any party, but my state forces me to if i want to vote in primaries. just one more stupid consequence of our gerrymandered duopoly.
 
For years I was actually registered Republican here in Kansas so I could vote for moderates in the primaries. However, since Brownback has purged almost all the moderates, there is no point in it. I am too pragmatic to register third party. Like it or not, in the USA, we have 2 parties: Republican and Democratic. Once in a great while an independent gets elected, but 99.9% of the time, your choice is either a Republican or a Democrat.

One might argue that since Kansas is such a red state, someone that might would vote Democrat could just register with the Green Party and support them, but from a practical standpoint, they will never win anything here, so I would rather support a Moderate Republican Candidate in a state or local election that I might agree with half the time, then throw away my vote on some Green or Libertarian Candidate and the moderate candidate lose to some total nutjob on the far right.

I am probably just the opposite. I support third parties and vote for their candidates. If one wants to get a viable third party one has to put their money/vote where their mouth is. During Perot's time only 39% of the electorate said they would consider voting for a third party candidate, today that is up to 81% of the electorate. That duopoly you talk about, people are beginning to tire of. Since 2005 the independent ranks or those who affiliate/identify themselves as independents has risen from 30% to 45% as the two major parties has shrunk.

The problem is though the two major parties have a monopoly on the system. They write the election laws and receive all the financial donations from corporations, wall street, special interests, lobbyist etc. I think the mood among the people is there for another party, but as long as people look at voting and supporting third party candidates, we are doomed to that monopoly. It becomes a self fulling prophesy.
 
Sometimes I halfway wish the republicans would run a far right candidate just to see what happens....

Edit: For president, I mean.

They did in 1964 and they lost 44 states doing it.
 
You consider Barry Goldwater far-right?

I voted for Barry, my first presidential vote. But Goldwater would not be far right according to today's standard. At least religious far right as even back then when it came to gays he stated "You do not have to be straight to shoot straight." A reference to gays in the military. Gary marriage was never dreamed of back then. He also was for a woman's right to choose. He believed in fiscal responsibility and when it came to Vietnam, he told LBJ "to either go win that war or bring our boy home." He did believe in small government in which keeps it, government out of a citizen's private business and lives.

He was also a strict constitutionalist. He was to the right back then, perhaps far right. But one must remembers back then until he ran for president the Republican Party's idea of conservatism was that it was for the same things the Democrats were for, but only a little bit less.
 
You consider Barry Goldwater far-right?

Everything is relative. At the time he was indeed far right. The far righties of today would have been considered certifiable back then.
 
I voted for Barry, my first presidential vote. But Goldwater would not be far right according to today's standard. At least religious far right as even back then when it came to gays he stated "You do not have to be straight to shoot straight." A reference to gays in the military. Gary marriage was never dreamed of back then. He also was for a woman's right to choose. He believed in fiscal responsibility and when it came to Vietnam, he told LBJ "to either go win that war or bring our boy home." He did believe in small government in which keeps it, government out of a citizen's private business and lives.

He was also a strict constitutionalist. He was to the right back then, perhaps far right. But one must remembers back then until he ran for president the Republican Party's idea of conservatism was that it was for the same things the Democrats were for, but only a little bit less.

I don't know if you have ever seen this or not, but this is a great documentary about him: Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater (2006) - IMDb
 
To me, registering with a political party is like putting training wheels on a banana...time consuming and utterly pointless.
 
To me, registering with a political party is like putting training wheels on a banana...time consuming and utterly pointless.

Don't know how long it takes to put training wheels on a banana. But I concur that it's utterly pointless.
 
There should have been another choice there... Independent.

I have been registered Independent for twenty plus years. Not the Independent Party... Simply Independent.

Some states don't necessarily have that option. Some don't have partisan registration at all.
 
I watched it awhile back.

One has to wonder what America would be like today if the Democrats never aired the "Daisy" commercial. Typical Democrats using scare tactics to win elections.



Both parties use scare tactics to win elections.
 
I registered as a Libertarian years ago but, no longer vote.
 
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