It will only be for one night

No, it can be helpful. If enough people vote third-party, it will get the attention of the big parties. They would have to modify their positions and approaches to draw those people back. We have to start somewhere.

 

This is OT: what exactly is this “third party” platform to you?

 

I absolutely do agree with that, and we have to start sometime, I'm just thinking not this cycle. If he got in again because votes were diverted from Biden and not trump, we are in a world of hurt. There have been times in our recent history where this has happened, luckily the winner wasn't a trump type candidate.
I've seen what a second trump admin would look like by living in Fl and seeing the nefarious things desantis has done in his second term. The abuse of power will be shocking.

 

There’s not just one third party. I have to see the platforms of the candidates when the time comes around. Just like the previous two elections.

 

Ok.

But, there lies in the problem. There is no viable third party because no third party platform can compete to capture a large enough portion of the electorate to matter.

For all the banter about being “independent” or “looking for a third party”, it is meaningless without a list of willing compromises.

 

you didn’t label this one. Joke or serious?

 

the real power is in Congress, not the President. There can’t be a 3rd party President until there is a 3rd party with some numbers in Congress. One or two election cycles with 50 or more Representatives and 5-10 Senators will do the trick. People have to take the party for a test drive before they vote them in as POTUS. People are afraid they are wasting their vote otherwise.

 

No candidate or party will line up exactly with what I believe. I have to look for the best fit.

When I took political science 101 the professor lamented people who do not have a coherent ideology. If he looked at my voting record in primaries and presidential elections since my first vote in 1976, he would pull his hair out in frustration.

 

Yes. We actually agree on something. I would go a step further that a true third party has to start at some local level and go through states and local elections. A third party caucusing with either the DNC or RNC just gets absorbed into the uniparty system.

 

Well, most here don't need a label.

 

Me too!

 

One thing that wasnt for only one night ... this thread

 

100% agree. This is why I haven’t voted for a Dem or pub since Clinton I think. Since graduating from law school, I have become a staunch libertarian/constitutionalist. The problem at the local level is I have never been given an option for a libertarian candidate. At the state level, there is almost always people who claim to be a libertarians running, but when I look into them, they generally don’t share the same principles as me or have no record or platform to examine. The thing is, most independents that I know are much closer to being libertarian than they are to Republican or Democrats. If the Independents would just create their own party with a platform, I think we would have a much better functioning democracy.

 

You lost me at libertarian. We had an agreeable moment. I will cherish it.

 

Trump did far worse. He divided the country, perhaps to a greater extent than any former President. How do Pubs/Dems consider the other side nowadays? What kinds of rhetoric does he spew at his rallies and how do his followers respond? He claims the gov has been weaponized against him, but he has weaponized the entire U.S. political complex.

 

take off your blue blinders. You just described the Obama/Biden administration.

 

It was rude of Obama to be black and president. Imagine the police reaction if he drove a nice car by himself in an affluent neighborhood.

 

PSA. when you stick your head up there make sure you look for polyps. Those can turn into cancer.

 

I wish we could clear the cancers off of this board.