I tried to respond to a topic about third parties but all that made it thru was the quote part so I'll start a new one.

The true political power is the power to vote. Does everyone remember the terrorist attack in Spain? That ocurred just ten days before a major national election where the power party was a sure bet to win. Spain's people did not want to get involved in Iraq for fear of terrorist attacks. The first question to the government was whether or not it was Al Quida. The government denied that link and blamed it on another group that Spain had trouble with before. Three days later, the people found out that the government had lied and were incensed. In just seven days, using a text messaging campaign, the people got together and swung the election to a decisive loss for the power party. ONE WEEK!!! They didn't care that just ten days ago they were voting for the power party. The people wanted to teach them a lesson, and teach they did.

Why doesn't that happen here you ask?? Voter apathy is the number one reason. People are so fed up with the dems and repubs that they just don't vote. Instead of turning the frustration in to positive action, they do nothing but complain.

The second problem is there is no way for third parties to be seen nationally like the dems and repubs. In order to participate in the debates, a party has to garner a certain percentage of the popular vote, which has been put at a high level given how many third parties always creep up during a presidential election. Unless the voters organize a la Spain, getting a third party in will be impossible. I don't know how much more fed up we need to be, but we surely need to make that change.

If you go to WWW.LP.ORG and read our platform, you will know why the dems and repubs do not want to debate us on national tv. All the focus would be on us because they would have to defend the political norm against the way it should be. Also, visit WWW.HARRYBROWNE.ORG. Harry was our two time presidential candidate. His site has a lot of archived info for your entertainment.

I could go on forever. There are so many websites out there exposing the governmental abuse we allow to happen to ourselves, I could do a forum filibuster easy.

In Patriotism,
Kevin

Thank you for avoiding the filubuster, Kevin.

Perhaps there are other reasons why the libertarian platform hasn't caught on, besides the dominant 2 party system.

Are you one of the libertarians planning to move to NH to take over my state?

I must agree with libertarian. In 2000 Nader could sell out entire arenas in just a matter of hours (were talking 20,000+ seats here) and have guests like Michael Moore, Eddie Vedder, Chomsky, Zinn, Willie Nelson, etc.. and STILL not get any attention from the media. (please read the book "crasing the party" for the "gore"y details) The greens were also denied from the presidental "debates"

This past year Badnarick and Cobb were arrested for protesting the debates. Go figure....


Imagine, the greens and libertarians actually working together!

Hey Green, I worked the Nader campaign here in NC during the 04 election. We had to fight in court just to get his name as a write-in! The Republicans tried to ban him from even beign a write-in? Go figure, I thought anyone could be a write-in. Not in the Neo-COn rule book of politics, only what they say is acceptable as a candate goes. Makes me wonder how the Democrats get anything done...oh wait.

Wow! Good for you man! In illinois, they re-wrote the laws to allow bush on the ballot and spent more $$$ challenging Nader, than the republicans.

See, with things like that happening Green, makes you wonder if we really are a two-party system.

Oh, i dont wonder. Im pretty convinced were not. Were just led to believe we are....

You are absolutely right. Working together is really the only way to get enough of that all important popular vote. We all know that if that did happen, more "third" parties would spring up to try and syphon votes away. Given what happened in Florida though, syphoning would be an unnecessary waste of their time to keep us away from the debates. Combining our efforts would be an organizational nightmare as all parties have their beliefs. A lot of compromise would be in order, but what a thought.

To get a viable third party, it's a process that will have to be tolerated, indeed, sufferd. They will naturally tend to siphon off votes from one of the big two or both for a period of time, untill the third party either gains credibility or dies out.

Don't give up the ship, Nadar has name recognition big time. He wields alot of political power even if he can't win the oval office.

We've never been just a two party system. With the way the game is played, that's all the majority of the voters see, two parties. We do need to combine efforts to knock down their wall. Name recognition is not enough. We need to pull a Spain on them. (initial post) I haven't voted for an incumbant since 1973 when I first voted. They get too comfy with all that special interest money around. They lose sight of the fact that they are civil servants and are supposed to have our best interests in mind. I've been doing my thing for so long now, that I just can't see why it is so hard to get organized. What have the dems and repubs done lately that has improved anything?? Why do they deserve such blind loyalty?? If you ran a business the way this country is being run, you would no longer be in business!! AAAAGH!

Kevin