For better or for worse, Civis has invited me to participate in the Poligion blog and I've accepted. I thought I'd begin by announcing to the world that I have said "Goodbye" to the Republican Party and am registering as a member of the Constitution Party as a matter of conscience. The party's platform is a dream come true. A snippet from the platform on Education: "All teaching is related to basic assumptions about God and man. Education as a whole, therefore, cannot be separated from religious faith. The law of our Creator assigns the authority and responsibility of educating children to their parents."
The knee-jerk reaction to "third parties" is "Don't waste your vote" or something similar; well, folks, I've been an active Republican since I was six years old, proudly wearing my "I Like Ike" button and stumping for the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket among my first grade classmates. I can truly say that the only real value returned for my work and financial support was Ronald Reagan. The rest has been a catalog of betrayals. So, if I must "waste" my time, effort, and vote, I will do so for a party in whose platform I believe, and I'll work for that party either until its platform and candidates become as corrupt as the Big Two or until I'm declared incompetent and institutionalized.
Most Americans believe that competition is good; it promotes efficiency, good service, and affordability. But when it comes to politics, the very idea of a "third party" is virtually anathema? If a third party can't win, then why can't it? Why can there be no equivalent to Apple Computer or Google in the political corporation world? These are not rhetorical questions; the answer to both lies in the difficulty of ballot access, supported by the Big Two; get rid of the stranglehold on ballots and watch the competition arise and flourish.
Recommended Reading:
The Ballot Access Hurdle
Ballot Access News
And of COURSE: Platform of the Constitution Party
On another, but related matter - thanks, Jared, for your letter to Right to Life regarding John McCain, who has not only betrayed the pro-life community (repeatedly) but whose military hero myth is being "Swiftboated" (in the conservative sense of the word) by Viet Nam Vets. Talk about wasting a vote! I'm not sure he's the lesser of any two evils after seeing this:
Later,
Cerebella
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
I'll have to check out the Constitutionalist Party platform. I'm with you about thw two party system and feeling like my party sells out. We're not alone either. In Iowa, 78 percent Caucus goes, responding to a poll, stated they are "angry" with the current system, along with 81 percent of New Hampshire Democrats. On the Republican side, the numbers were 67% and 68%. If the Real Americans would please stand up and unite, we could take this country back.
The Constitution Party...isn't that the party where Joe Sobran was the VP nominee some years back? Was it Peroutka that ran as Pres in the last election?
Knowing Bush was going to win Louisiana in the last presidential election, the CP ticket was a party a conservative could vote for in good conscience, knowing that it wasn't a vote for Kerry.
A conservative couldn't vote for a third party candidate in good conscience unless Kerry was sure to lose in his state?
Joe Sobran ran for VP of the CP? Isn't he kind of racist?
I guess the point I was trying to make was that a vote for 3P wasn't a vote to help the worse of two evils in the last presidential election. As you know, that is the reply many have if you say you're going 3P. You could vote for the C party knowing you weren't helping by far the worse of the two in the last pres. election. Knowing the extreme liberal wasn't going to benefit from your vote for a 3P is something I can sleep better with.
How is someone kind of racist? I haven't read anything racist by him, but I haven't read everything he's written. I do know that I take issue with Sobran on ecclesialogical issues. And that's because I read something he said that I thought wrong on his understanding of Vatican II. We even had a small exchange on it by email.
I thought I recalled some article by him which you forwarded to me which had some kind of questionable statements about Jews. I can understand if he doesn't support our continued backing of the nation of Isreal, but.... Maybe I'm wrong, I just thought I heard his some some questionable things. There may also have been some things about blacks or other minorities. I can't recall. If anybody can confirm or disproce what I'm saying, please do.
What I recall was kind of the Pat Buchanan Caliber of comment.
Joe Sobran ran as VP in 2000 for a while but withdrew. The "racist" epithet goes back to a donnybrook between Sobran and Bill Buckley, I think. But regardless of how you interpret Sobran (or Buchanan) and their opposition to Zionism, any party which takes on the Fed and has a non-interventionist foreign policy will be branded as racist, all the more so as it poses a threat to the Big Two, i.e. Socialist Party #1 and Socialist Party #2.
According to the Constituion Party's newsletter, among possible Presidential candidates for 2008 are Bob Smith and Roy Moore, both of whom are presumed racists from the fact that they are from Alabama; but then Alan Keys is also listed as one of the potential candidates -- an Uncle Tom if ever there were one.
Let's all go to Kansas City in April and nominate Jared and Civis!
Is that the Bob Smith who was a former Senator from NH? From what I remember, he was good.
*Is that the Bob Smith who was a former Senator from NH? *
Yup, that's the one; he's in the video I posted about McCain, too.
Cerebella,
Thanks for the nomination, although, for the benefit of the CP, I could bring to bear the support of my wife, toddler, in eutero infant, mutt dog and negative net worth, I'll have to respectfully decline.
Granted, "playing the race card" is overdone and a cheap trick, but, aside from showing your smallness, why shoot yourself in the foot?
Civis,
Someone probably has shot himself in the foot in getting the new party launched; someone will probably do so again in the future. Be that as it may, I'd rather shoot myself in the foot in an honest political blunder than be associated with people who will shoot me -- and my progeny -- in the back.
Cheerio
Addendum:
"...shoote me and my progeny in the back,
"For Wales".
Post a Comment