THIRD PARTY Presidential Debate Thread

reply to post by Erowynn


It's not unrealistic at all to advocate for free higher education . California had free college education up until the 1980's, and California has the best public university system in the country. With that said, we could cut a minute portion of our defense spending and that could easily pay for it. There are a myriad of realistic ways it can be done.

reply to post by Circumstance


Yep. Also it would cost less tax payer money to outright pay for higher education than it currently does by guaranteeing private loans.

Originally posted by theMediator
5% folks!

5% of total votes is all a third party needs to have their next campaign financed and be "on par" with the 2 main parties.

Think about it.

Can you provide a source for this? I think it would be great if true, but the devil is in the details....

For example the polls are based on 600 or 1,200 polled out of hundreds of millions of registered voters, making the whole thing look like a total sham. As for total votes collected by each party&candidate that is a different story.

Too bad all the left wing parties cannot muster any momentum because people are scared of the word "socialism" and "communism". A small government is a bad idea for most people and to be honest I was turned off by gary johnson wanting to cut back and eventually end social services. The only thing going for the libertarians is that they are anti-war much like ron paul was, but that will never be enough for me to vote for either. He also says we should end corporate tax and pesonal income tax and replace it with a consumption tax, no wonder social services would take a massive hit. Government should NOT be run as a business, which is what democrats, republicans and libertarians want.

My first choice is SPUSA and my second choice would be Green Party! SPUSA is only on four state ballots last time I checked, which is not good!

I'm still watching it, but I must say how impressed I am with the candidates and their collective sincerity. I like how in agreement they are with each other, and as I listen to their points, I feel such sadness that we won't see any of them in office. Gary Johnson in particular is obviously very popular.

Originally posted by EarthCitizen07

Originally posted by theMediator
5% folks!

5% of total votes is all a third party needs to have their next campaign financed and be "on par" with the 2 main parties.

Think about it.

Can you provide a source for this? I think it would be great if true, but the devil is in the details....

For example the polls are based on 600 or 1,200 polled out of hundreds of millions of registered voters, making the whole thing look like a total sham. As for total votes collected by each party&candidate that is a different story.

Yea its called matching funds. For example, if Ron Paul ran as an independent this year, he would've been eligible for up to 40+ million in matching funds. Whether he would actually take it is definitely arguable.

I think I've just fallen in love with Gary Johnson in the literal sense.
I remember reading a meme-type picture of him on here that said, 'Waste your vote on me, and I'll be the next President' or something like that. He basically said that in his closing statement, and it was awesome.
Of course, we all know a third-party election will never happen.

It should be disturbing to hear Green Party candidate Jill Stein refer to the US as a Democracy so 'many' times in her opening remarks. Too much obvious subliminal programming going on here. Hope most Americans picked up on this? The next guest, Rocky Anderson, of the 'justice' party, in his opening re-marks echoed the Democracy fallacy as well !!! The US is a REPUBLIC, not a democracy.....where an oligopoly of federal tyrants overrule the people and have no accountability at the local level on up.

Virgile Goode appears to have been a career politician from democrat to republican to independent to constitution party. How could one support the non-constitutional fraudulant, treasonous 'system' since 1997 and then 'all of the sudden' realize he should have been defending the constitution? This doesn't make sense cause it's not Of sense. Strange Virginian accent or 'any' accent. Felt like I was listening to a really bad impersonation of 'someone' during a Saturday Night Live comedy skit

Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party is the only one that makes any sense 'here'.
I couldn't find any fault with what he said tonight as his reasoning 'works' and he appears to be compassionate about the US and it's people.

What is Larry King, a formal CNN corporate mass media globalist gatekeeper/monitor doing here? Monitoring for whom?

....."and to the *Republic* for all".

Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch this debate, but was this on any of the mainstream news networks? Was it even mentioned?

reply to post by Dishonored


Debate link

Originally posted by Dishonored
Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch this debate, but was this on any of the mainstream news networks? Was it even mentioned?

Not at all, unfortunately it takes foreign news networks like RT and Al Jazeera to tell us we have more than 2 candidates running for president.

C-Span gets credit for airing it though, but they air almost anything political.

What is worst of all if that on ATS, a supposedly underground, ANTI-mainstream/establishment gathering place, the mainstream debate thread is 44 pages long while the third party, anti-establishment debate gets only 4 pages of discussion.

You can really tell that Gary Johnson is the best debater up there. His experience really does shine through. It's a shame these people weren't given the chance to talk to the American people. How dare we call ourselves a democracy?

As a Brit it's interesting to see these third party people, they sound more like they have the interests of the American people as their main concern, than the two main idiots running for office. I also like the fact that you chaps on here aren't ripping each others throats out as usual when it comes to US politics :-) you are actually having a constructive debate :-) the Republican and Democrats have polarised the voters so much, that you can't see they are basically the same party and I think the American voter is starting to see this, but for the most part, doesn't know how to change this, simply don't vote for either, follow what you believe, yes one of the main two will still get in, more than likely, but the shift however small will be noticed, a small change in the way you vote now, may change things for the next election or even your mid terms. Personally I like Jill Stien and Rocky Anderson.

I'd like to add one more thing here. This debate honestly feels like America. What I mean by that is, I can picture these 4 in the 1800s standing on a stage (minus the goofy wigs) debating the real issues of the country. This feels like our roots. It feels like what democracy should be.

It may not be professional. It may not be on a world stage. But this is what made this country great. This is what separated us from the rest of the world for so long! The ability to bring great minds together to talk about the real issues ...and it's a damn shame we lost ourselves somewhere along the way.

reply to post by Dishonored


Republic, not Democracy; large difference.
Are you American?

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The Pledge of Allegiance

Originally posted by Bluemoonsine
reply to post by Dishonored

 

Republic, not Democracy; large difference.
Are you American?

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The Pledge of Allegiance

edit on 25-10-2012 by Bluemoonsine because: (no reason given)

Democratic Republic... or so it would seem. Technically Constitutional Republic. We have a bit of an identity crisis.

So are any of you going to vote for these candidates?

Originally posted by Shminkee Pinkee
So are any of you going to vote for these candidates?

I was going to vote for Gary Johnson but I'll probably just stay home. No point to even bother with it at this point.

As for free college education?
The only way it could be free where the taxpayer and 'public' debt is not burdened is via the internet.
This has already been accomplished. The associated website fee/server maintenance/updating fees would be a fraction of the cost of supporting the brick and mortar school with one teacher or another a student may not agree/vibe with. One should be able to choose which school curriculum to go by, according those schools participating in each subject, (Example linked below).

The only time one should need to visit the school would be for when it is absolutely necessary for activities such as laboratory experiments, public speaking, law discertations etc. for when it is necessary for the student to be in the person. This could be presceduled by any participating university in the area. All tests could be standardized whereby all schools would grade on the same scale to allow any teacher to merely administer the test.

Every 1 to 3 months one could be required to take a test at a nearby university/college in person to ensure 'written' tests are written by the students and not by another and to ensure no cheat sheets are accessed via the web online. Holographic learning tools are around the corner that will make learning much more interesting, efficient and easier to grasp the subject matter.

This would allow one to work a job and go to school/study at their convenience without having to sacrifice school/work and lessen the stress associated between the two.

If one requests a physical school, that could be paid at a much cheaper rate without the govt. setting the limits as it does with subsidies as Candidate Johnson alluded to. Online education is visual, auditory and one can learn at their own pace, pause, stop, break, at will. It has become a very efficient and effective way to learn these days and some of the top Universities in the world have already put these curriculums on the web.

Just one >Example

reply to post by Bluemoonsine


I still don't understand why college is even needed. Now hear me out okay? There used to be a time in this country when if you needed to know something to do your job, you were trained on site and if you couldn't cut it, you were let go. Chinese immigrants came to this country and couldn't even speak English and did jobs that today require a college degree. You want to blame someone for student debt? Blame American corporations for cutting corners and costs to the point that they treat both their employees and customers like dogs.

I have no problem with people wanting to educate themselves. But the point is, it used to be an option. Now you go and "invest" 60k+ and 4+ years of your time for nothing more than an opportunity. But you're right. With the internet, education should be cheaper if not free. It is greed that is holding the entire country back at this point... and nobody wants to talk about it.