Issue: Elections: Rules keep Third-party candidates down?

[Bradley in DC]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010262

Good thing Dr. Paul will be the Republican nominee!

[LizF]

Interesting article. This part stood out for me:


"But there is an even larger practical problem for third-party candidates; one that frequently causes their downfall. The two political parties have ideologies that serve a real and very important function in an election.

Most voters do not follow the political process all that closely--for good reason, as they have jobs and lives. The parties therefore operate as signposts for a host of contentious issues. Just by looking at the candidate's party, voters are aware of the candidates' likely position on a diverse array of wedge issues. A third-party candidate may initially win support for a few exciting new ideas, such as Ross Perot's anti-free-trade positions, but voters start peeling off as the candidacy gets serious and the candidate is forced to reveal his stand on other controversial political problems. "


So one way of reading this, is that the two-party system allows the voters to be superficial (or lazy) in the lead up to an election, as the default positions of each party allows voters to not force themselves to truly do research on candidates & their positions. It almost makes you want to abolish the party system altogether, or, conversely, to insist that all parties receive equal representation at debates. (I wonder if RP would have had a better showing in the 1988 election if he had been allowed to debate alongside Bush Sr. and Dukakis).

I can certainly empathize with what was said about people having busy lives, especially where both parents in a household need to work full-time jobs; manage the household itself; be fully present in their childrens' lives; etc, so I can understand the appeal of "simplifying" the process for the voter. Still, something about saying "two parties is all ya need" makes me see similarities with our concerns about the MSM and the corporatists anointing who the finalists--and winners--of political races will be.

[Trance Dance Master]

Stagnation is a result of the apathetic "things won't ever be any different". Do you really believe nothing has changed in the electoral process? People working in the MSM were actually crying over Kerry's 2004 phony run for office and how he conceded to Bush as quickly as possible. Everyone is ready for revolution, even if they're too scared to say so.

http://goldismoney.info/forums/showpost.php?p=73145&postcount=3

Spoke to the Boston Globe newspaper news room yesterday. I asked if they were aware that there is a tremendous amount of evidence that points to wide spread election fraud in the past election. At first she denied knowing anything about it ……. When I asked if they had access to the internet, she then told me that she couldn’t talk about it. I ask “you mean you can’t talk to people about any news story, or just this one?” She replied “this one”. She went on to tell me that they indeed had a front page story about the election fraud in the paper…. I asked if she could tell me about it’s content….. she said it dealt with debunking the “rumors” of election fraud that are springing up on the internet. I told her that a 5 minute search on google would show there’s plenty to the story…. She again said that she couldn’t talk about it…. She said that my comments would be forwarded, thanked me, and hung up……

Off to the Providence Journal….

I called the Providence Journal and asked the news room if they had any plans to run a story about the election fraud. Guess what that girl told me…..” I can’t talk about it”. She said that everyone had been told not to write anything about it, and not to discuss it.

I reminded her about what T. Jefferson said about the importance of a free press. I said that without a free press, our democracy is basically screwed. I gave her names and places to go on the internet to do some research…. I said another big story is why J. Kerry is so disinterested about this and why he conceded before the votes were counted. Isn’t THAT a story? At this point she started to weep. You read that right…. she started to cry. She then asked me if I’d talk to a reporter that was in the room. I was handed over to him. He got on the phone in a not to pleasant mood. He told me in a very stern voice that there was no election fraud in Mass. or Rohde Island. I asked him if the theft of a presidency wasn’t a big story. He shouted at me to go ask AP and hung up.

I think homeland security is knocking….. gotta go.

[GreyBlood]

"The last third-party candidate even to garner an Electoral College vote was Southern protest candidate George Wallace in 1968."

horse shit!

[torchbearer]

what would ron paul say to such a statement? the same thing he says when they say he doesn't have a chance of winning...
the future isn't determined yet, a lot of things can happen between now and the elections.
how about economic collapse? Iraq blows up into full blown civil war. wait thats already happening. more troops dying... check.