Will 3rd Parties Shake Up Future Races?

I was attempting to drown my disappointment with Mountain Dew this evening. The Phillies let me down. Brad Lidge, you are now on my list of guys who should not be a closer. Maybe that is just the disappointment speaking. As a Sawx fan, I certainly find it tough to root for the Yankees. But I would actually be OK with them winning if it weren’t for the fact that A-Rod and Joba Chamberlain will get rings. I would have preferred to see them both never get one. But at least Alex has earned it this year. But a Phillies win would have made it a series! Instead we now have to see three wins in a row to make it happen. Disappointing. So I went on to check on how things are going with the big Governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia. I stumbled across this article and thought, “Hey, let’s take a pulse on the site and see what people think.” They were basically discussing the fact that 3rd parties are having some gain in the current elections and speculating that 3rd parties will have an even bigger impact on the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Third Party Viability…. Scene 3, Take 2

I covered this topic once upon a time. In fact it was the 4th blog post that I wrote way back when I started. I covered the topic OK then, but I think I can do better this time around. More importantly, the last time I covered it I only had about 3 readers, lol. I got 3 responses other than my own, one was Revolution, whom some of you have become acquainted with, and another was my wife. I would say we have grown a bit with a couple thousand page hits a day. It is hard for me to tell how many people actually come to the site, but I am sure that the number is significantly larger than it was the last time I talked about this. When I started writing this blog, I was disgusted with the outcome of the elections and disgusted with the Republican party. Those two factors in the equation have not changed. I was also in the firm belief that moving to a third party, possibly the Libertarians, was the absolute best move for me. So let’s talk about a third party and whether that is a viable move in today’s political climate…

Are Libertarians Up To The Task?

As with the “Direction of the Republican Party” thread, this one has been extremely active so I have moved back up towards the top of the page. This was originally posted February 20. Many of you know that I started this blog as a way to ferret out my beliefs and start providing some viewpoints that I feel are important. The “Direction of the Republican Party” post has been far and away the most read article I have written. So now I want to discuss another option that is out there on the table. The Libertarian party easily has the most solid platform of the bigger parties. So I want to talk with everyone about whether they are up to the task of really operating on the big stage. So far they have progressed only as far as AAA in the minor leagues. They show promise. But will they find that they need a little more movement on that fast ball if they want to make it in the big leagues?

Libertarian Party Act IX

Well we are finally out of the holiday season for me. And that means we can get back to business. The next to last section of the Libertarian Platform. We have certainly covered a lot in all of the first 8 acts, and we now near the finish line. But we aren’t done yet. There are some inportant areas still to be covered and analyzed. I look forward to your thoughts on these three areas…

Libertarian Party Act VIII

The Dissection of the Libertarian Party platform enters the final section, which will be comprised of three Acts. Here are some tougher topics that I look forward to the conversation around. National Security and Individual Rights are the topics in this section, which means that some of you are going to have really strong opinions. But I find that this section gives me a lot of unanswered questions.

Stuart Smalley versus the People of Minnesota

Another article that I have tried my best not to write, but I simply cannot help myself. And the pictures below are simply too good to pass up. You guys all remember Stuart Smalley right? Stuart was a character on Saturday Night Live played by comedian Al Franken. He had no self esteem and would talk to himself in the mirror, affirming that he was “good enough, smart enough, and gosh darnit, people liked him”. My favorite skit was when Michael Jordan hosted the show and he had Michael look into the mirror and say the self affirmation speech. Jordan could barely keep a straight face. Well it seems that Stuart thinks he is good enough for the United States Senate…..

Libertarian Party Act VII

As promised, we move directly into Act VII of dissecting the Libertarian Party Platform. That last part was fairly tough for me. I had been cruising along and starting to think that maybe I could get behind this party, and then I hit a financial roadblock. That hasn’t ruled them out, but I certainly need some convincing that those parts can work.

Libertarian Party Act VI

Time to get back to the Libertarian Platform. I am going to be doing the next couple of sections in quick order, as it does seem that we got away from it a little too long. We want to cover it all without too much interval in order to make sure everyone gets to see it all. So on to finance, money, and monopolies…

Libertarian Party Platform Act V

Well we have certainly had our fair share of interesting conversations about the Libertarian Party platform thus far, haven’t we? A lot of opinions and disagreements. But that is what this is about: talking about our differences. I am finding that I am gaining a much better perspective on each of these issues through the conversation around them. So on to the first section of the Economic Liberties Section…

Libertarian Platform Act III

Now we get to dig into specific issues in the Libertarian Platform. The Statement of Principles was a good start but was just a precursor. We begin with the first half of the “Personal Liberty” section, which covers expression and communication, personal privacy, and personal relationships. I must say that I am enjoying the conversations each day brings and I am sure some of my commentary here is going to fire some folks up…

I Need Some Help on Deciding Whether to Write About…

Alright, here is the deal. While I can rant and rave and point out all the stuff in the world, and I will continue to do that, I was also floating around some ideas about some things I wanted to write about. So an idea came to me to write a series of blogs devoted to certain topics. But I want to make sure that it is something that people wanted to read about….

Given a Choice Between Red and Blue…I’ll Take Purple

Third party viability. Someone near and dear to me has a blog that focuses around the premise that a third party can rally and paint the White House purple (Hint: Coup D’etat over there in the blogroll, go visit it next next!). We have all talked about a “None of the Above” box on the ballot. Some of us have even seen the movies (I would have voted for Richard Pryor). But since the big boys refuse to give America that “None of the Above” box, a third party is our only other option. But can that really happen?

I Like BBQ, but this much pork is choking me.

I have a real problem with the way that legislation happens in this country. If you want to get a vote passed in Congress, you have to gain support by giving something in the bill to the other members in Congress in order to essentially “buy” their vote. How did we get to this? Can you imagine Thomas Jefferson telling John Adams “Hey dude, I dig this whole Constitution thing, but I am not going to vote for it unless it includes some language that ensures that I get extra land for the tobacco farmers in my state.” Yeah, I can’t imagine that either.