Over the past couple of years, I have flirted with the idea of voting third party. The Republican Party that I enthusiastically supported in the 1990’s does not exist in the practices of the current national GOP, as a whole.
I decided, though, that it makes little sense to go with a third party.
No, not because we need to stop Barack Obama at any cost and John McCain is the only one who can do it, although those arguments are persuasive.
There is nothing that the left can do to this country in two or four years that cannot be undone. (I know that many people, including my husband, would disagree with that.)
If anything, I think two or four years of unbridled Democratic control will finally put to bed the notion that these liberal ideas, which have failed elsewhere, will be embraced America, not to mention this silly notion that conservatism in America is dead. If liberalism was popular, Obama would run on it, not from it.
But, back to the third party thing.
If I may, let me use as an analogy Bill Ayers. Now here is a guy who has a commitment to a particular ideology. At first, he thought the best way to further that ideology was to attempt to overthrow the government using terrorism tactics, send people to re-education centers to get them in line with the new way of thinking, and exterminate the approximately 25 million people who refused to be re-educated.
At some point, Mr. Ayers decided that a better way was to work within the framework of the current system. He became an education professor, where he could freely indoctrinate the future teachers, who would then indoctrinate countless numbers of impressionable young minds. He worked on boards where he could collaborate with others to implement some of his ideas. He used his home to host the launching of the political campaign of a future presidential candidate.
Using normal acceptable means to further his agenda, he has gotten much further toward his goal than he did using the radical, dare I say, homicidal, means.
I view voting third party as the Weather Underground Ayers. Not that you folks are homicidal radicals, but that you are going to accomplish about as little, except without killing anyone.
The system is against you. Third party candidates are not taken seriously, they get little to no media attention, and it is going to take you ten times as long to accomplish half as much, if even.
You can learn from Bill Ayers. When he chose to work within the system, he went from crazy 60s homicidal radical to respected citizen and university professor, who has worked together with prominent politicians.
The Republican Party is already in place. The media recognizes it, as do the uninformed voters who get all of their information from said media. It once stood for real conservatism, and many people who call it home are still conservatives. Why reinvent the wheel?
We need to be ready on day one to rebuild this movement. If Barack Obama and the liberal Democrats win big, they will provide us with the gift that keeps on giving. Once they try to enact their plans, such as effectively killing people’s 401k accounts and bankrupting utilities, people will come running back to conservatism in droves. We need to be there when they do, not off trying to build a new party from the ground up.
So, for now, I am not going to abandon the Republican Party.
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I told ya so…there was never any doubt in my mind that ultimately you would hold your nose & vote for McSame…who’s already lost BTW.
It’s the day before the election, and you’re *still* talking about Bill Ayers…unbelievable!
“such as effectively killing people’s 401k accounts”
…which President Obama has never spoken about, let alone supported.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I do not think you should be so quick to wave away the ideals of progressives as bumps in the road. The politics of Goldwater were radical in 1964, embracing an extreme right political view. They survived and flourished, just as progressive ideals may.
In the end, as Markos said, “There’s a coming civil war in the GOP. The neocons are thoroughly discredited. Heck, Kenneth “Iraq will be a cakewalk” Adelman endorsed Obama. But that leaves the theocons (Palin, Huckabee) to take on the Corporate Cons (Giuliani, Romney). The theocons have delivered the party’s footsoldiers for the past generation. It’s the reason McCain needed to bring Palin aboard. The corporate cons may have the money. They may control the party apparatus, but without the theocon cannon fodder, they can’t get anything to work.
But the plebes are no longer content being mere footsoldiers. They’ve done too much work, for too little reward, to let the corporate cons keep calling the shots.”
2010 looks to be an extremely strong year for Democratic pickups, even more so than this year. Should the bloodletting in the Republican party not be over in the next few years, it will be unlikely they’ll make up any ground in 2012 either. That said, it only took a few short years for Gov. Dean to transform the Democratic party – it certainly may be as quick a change for you as well.
While I admire your certainty that the Progressive left is going to fail miserably, I would say that the moderate Republicans who scoffed at the ideals of conservatism found a rude awakening when the political tides turned against them as well.
“Think of Al Gore winning the Democratic nomination in the year 2000 whose positions included halving the military budget, socializing the medical system, re-regulating the communications and electrical industries, establishing a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans, and equalizing funding for all schools regardless of property valuations — and who promised to fire Alan Greenspan, counseled withdrawal from the World Trade Organization, and, for good measure, spoke warmly of adolescent sexual experimentation. He would lose in a landslide. He would be relegated to the ash heap of history. But if the precedent of 1964 were repeated, two years later the country would begin electing dozens of men and women just like him. And not many decades later, Republicans would have to proclaim softer versions of those positions to get taken seriously for their party’s nomination.”
Best of luck tomorrow, either way it’ll be a fun ride.
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
“No, not because we need to stop Barack Obama at any cost and John McCain is the only one who can do it, although those arguments are persuasive.”
Well, you won’t, and no he can’t.
But seriously, you’re still basing your entire premise on the nonfact that we’re a conservative country. We’re not. THe GOP, after losing, will move even further to the fight and be wholly in the camp of racists, warmongers and know-nothing Godidiots. It took 40 years for the GOP to get to this point. Here’s to hoping it’ll take em another 40 to get back to a position of power again. They can’t run against the 60’s anymore. What are you going to do if liberalism is wildly successful this time around? Move to Alabama?
At least you’re giving props to Ayers.
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
I have been dissaponited too but the only real way to change it is from within. I’m sticking it out and doing what little part I can to ressurect it.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
“Move to Alabama?”
That’s funny…actually, that’s exactly what one of my former boss’ did when he couldn’t stand VT anymore…and good riddance to him…
November 4th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Birds of a feather and all that sort of commentary.
Who’s responsible for the death of more people that never attacked them? Bill Ayers or the Republican Party that stood side by side with Cheney/Bush as we invaded Iraq? Yeah … plenty of Democrats too … part of the reason I’ll not flock with them anymore.
You choose your friends and acquaintances as well as your political associations.
Choose wisely. Your kid’s future rests on your decision.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I’m happy to see there are still some conservative Vermonters in the state where I was born. What happened to you-all up there? I used to brag about Vt. being one of two states that voted against FDR. But all of New England has gone batty and John Adams and Calvin Coolidge must be rolling over in their graves!
I guess all of you up there and all the other blue states will have to learn all over again the truth of the axiom–TANSTAAFL. “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”
New Jersey is run by brain-dead Democrats and there really isn’t any hope for conservative Republicans in this state!
November 5th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Bill Ayers didn’t kill anybody. AFAIK, the only bomb from the WU that killed anyone was one they were making in an apartment that killed one of the WU members.
November 8th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Theocons are neoconservative Catholics like Fr. Richard John Neuhas, George Weigel, and Michael Novak who write for publications like “First Things”, not politicians like Gov. Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. Sarah Palin, however was trumpeted by neoconservatives like Bill Kristol, but other neoconservatives like David Frum and David Brooks criticized her. Mike Huckabee might have been an evangelical Christian but Ed Rollins but he was hardly in the same camp as James Dobson or Pat Robertson (neither of whom endorsed him).
As to voting third party, well I did and do not regret it. The candidate I voted for stood no chance of winning the election but I had to vote on principle and not out of expediency.