Well there seems to be an actual attempt at trying to find an alternative to the democrats and republicans brewing so a couple of thoughts about this attempt. First though I have been voting for non democrats and republicans since 1980 on every major election and most minor elections. If no alternate choice is available I may choose one of the two or not vote for that office at all. I have been a proponent that the Democrats and the Republicans have been out of touch with the middle class for decades and for years many of my friends have thought I was wasting my vote so I am feeling somewhat vindicated that other people are coming around.
I have actually thought about what it would take to get a third party involved etc, and of course had fun when Perot ran in the 90's. It seems that some of the liberal press is concerned that a successful attempt to get an America Elect candidate up and going would split the vote and allow for one of the more conservative Republicans to win. Or basically take away the moderate vote away from Obama so allowing a back door victory for a hard liner. And for this group proabably a realistic concern. I am moderate to super conservative depending on the issue, but the current group of Republican candidates really aren't addressing the needs of the majority of the country right now. This attempt by the America Elect seems to be trying to address a moderate stance and getting the moderate vote.
An aside here: moderate politically and doing what is right for the middle class may not be the same thing. Yes most middle class are moderately conservative historically, but right now what we need to do may take some real innovative thinking so trying to say taking a moderate position to win an election still may not be the best answer for our country right now. And I am not talking about taking extreme positions when I say innovative thinking, but actual innovative thinking.
Now back to the comments about the America Elect process. I am not going to get into the splitting of the vote, CNN and others are pretty ramped up about that. And yes it could be a concern, but lets take a look at the America Elect group actually winning. The problem is that they have no other support. Legislation gets passed when you have support in Congress and most of the time that comes from your own party. American Elect is not trying to create a third party so they run into a huge wall when dealing with Congress if they win the Presidency. This would create a gigantic stalemate or even something more interesting where Republicans and Democrats agree on some issues and pass what they want and override Presidential vetos left and right (pun intended). So the goal of America Elect is thwarted by the very group they are trying to by pass to run this country. Basically we get more of the current situation which is partisan arguing and no real and new policy development. And if you are a libertarian you might be able to claim victory this way if the government cannot do anything for four years.
So lets briefly look at some historical examples of third party involvement and what happened that has some play on the current situation. 1968 many people think, and I don't think correctly, Nixon won because Wallace took votes from Humphrey. Well that doesn't play out since most of the people who voted for Wallace would not have voted at all because of the civil rights issues of the time, most that voted for him may have never seen a voting booth before or since. And what this shows is the possibility that there are enough hard line votes on the right to actual pull off a back door win for a hard line Republican if the America Elect group truly takes away moderate votes from Obama.
Oops gotta run, will come back to this later
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