Third Parties: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

originally posted by: the owlbear
How old is Koko the gorilla? She knows sign language. She's honest. She would be the first woman and inter species president. Think about that,

She has my vote. Tell her handlers to place a lawn sign in my front yard.

originally posted by: reldra
I would be thoughtful. I would have private idelas and public ideals, meaning I would not rain SJW beliefs down willy nilly. But I still would not have any idea of what I was doing.

You have already put more effort into being a good President in one post than the other two have in their entire campaigns.

Reldra/Zippy 2016.

Anyone who wants to see a third or more party in America needs to read the following. Or anyone wanting an understanding of why we have only two major parties.

The More the Merrier: Would a Multi-Party System Work in America?

We have our two party system today, because of tradition, voting system, and Constitutional allocation of power. To have more than two major parties requires structural change.

lol Changing the voting and Constitutional structure might be easier than actually doing the hard work of building up a third or more party, considering low voter turn out and low participation in our democratic institutions. For ex, for a third party (ex Green Party) to be a viable governing party, it must first prove it can govern from the local and state level on up. That takes people building party structures at all levels, in all 50 states

If a party cannot show it can govern (first by getting its politicians elected), it cannot prove that it can effectively govern at the national level. A party that only comes out every four years with a "vanity candidate", should not be taken seriously.

"On the job training" is not an option with POTUS. There is a reason we established a Constitutional line of succession to the presidency.

A POTUS must be ready to do the job at the moment of transition of power. And until a political party can establish that its candidate would be ready to take on the job of POTUS with all it entails, that party should not be taken seriously....nor should the candidate him/herself.

originally posted by: reldra
Oddly, Koko did cross m mind. But she has the intellectual capacity of probably a 6 or 7 year old child.

So does Trump, and 40% of the country really likes him.

originally posted by: CynConcepts
Johnson surprises me that with his experience as a governor, one would think that he would have more detailed ideas on how policy actually works!

On paper I like Johnson, unfortunately he blew it in the interviews. I just can't support someone whose answer to avoiding complicated foreign policy decisions is to be so ignorant of the world that they're not qualified to make one or even point to the nation in question on a globe.

a reply to: reldra

Neither Johnson nor Stein seem to be very valid choices either.

adoy

Darrell Castle is more libertarian than Gary Johnson. He seems much saner than Trump and Clinton too.

Vote for Darrell Castle if your a conservative,tea party supporter, or a constitutional conservative.
Better than Hillary or Trump.

Vote for Gary Johnson if your a independent(most of Americans are independents),libertarian(modern version of a classical liberal),moderate conservative,moderate progressive,centrist,or a minarchist.
Most executive government experience of any of the presidential candidates.

Vote for Jill Stein if your a green,social democrat,progressive,moderate progressive,and/or environmentalist.
A progressive that is not bought and paid for by Wall street.

Hillary and Trump are poor choices in my opinion.

While it's not likely that a third party candidate would win, this might be the election where one actually pulls the 15% required to break the 2 party stranglehold on future campaign financing and debate admittance.

a reply to: Blueracer

Who's Darrel Castle? .....said rhetorically, because that's the point. People who are serious about a national run (and not just a "vanity candidate") need to be either known nationally or affiliated with a party apparatus that can introduce him/her to the general public.


a reply to: John_Rodger_Cornman

JRC, I commend you for having stuck with the Libertarian Party in all your posts this election season. I say that, because that is what it starts with in building a party. Loyal participants. I would never vote the LP, but if you can work with and be willing to take years to build up the party as I've said above, then you could be rewarded with the self satisfaction of participating in American Democracy.

Ballotpedia list of American political parties

As it states, there are "28 distinct ballot-qualified political parties in the United States. There were 214 state-level parties."

There has to be a political party apparatus built for a party to be successful. The goal for a new party is 50 states, local and state elected officials who can govern. Not just show up on a ballot every four years in 50 states.

Oh, and parties are not just candidates. Parties should have platforms to present to the public. A national platform looks different than a party platform of a local or regional party. Prove you can govern and have a platform with national appeal. (That was a major problem with Johnson, also, as he didn't know his own party's platform. But that is also a problem with many voters, because they are only familiar with candidates and not party platforms.)

But remember, as Ed Koch said, ”If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”

a reply to: desert

Somebody more deserving of my vote than Clinton, Trump, Johnson, or Stein.

a reply to: John_Rodger_Cornman

Castle is more libertarian than Johnson. I won't vote for someone just because they are the Libertarian nominee. Johnson is no Libertarian.

We Americans use a first past the post system, which means that there are only two kinds of people who promote third party candidates under our system:

1) People who want you to take away YOUR vote from the candidate their guy is running against.

2) People who suck at math.

Anyone who tells you different is either (a) lying, (b) crazy or (c) trying to sell you something.