No, there wasn’t someone I preferred. That was the point. Firstly, from my perspective you could pretty much reverse the outcome of every election over hte last 50 years and we’d be in a very similar place. People are always falsly attributing congressional actions to the president. The message I’m sending is that somewhere, hopefully, if the non-voting pool grows enough, the parties will begin to look to capture that vote. It’s an idealistic stance, I get that. If you read Greenman’s no vote no voice thread I lay it out pretty simply.
Instead, the two parties seem to have concluded that the center does not vote, and they have decided to focus on increasing participation on polarized extremes.
In the other thread I stated that I realized it may be naive. But I also don’t feel the need to compromise my own principles to lower myself to the level of these candidates.
I’m content to just sit it out and hope someone figures it out. That exact scenario may be GJ 2016, hence this thread that I created, we’ll see.
I feel like on the margin more people understand, compared to 8 years ago, the logical conflict inherent in the philosophies that drive both left and right politics and more people recognize that a system built for political and corporate elites intentionally by both sides is a bad thing for overall prosperity. But we’re not even close to rock bottom imo, so things will still get much worse before they get better. The founding fathers had it easy being in a ‘new land’. We won’t have that luxury.
Guys, I wouldn’t build up your hopes that some magic man will ride in and “save you”.
Remember, Obama was that guy. But magic man quickly turns into “who elected this idiot”, and then you are back with the same old persistent problems.
Banning branding on the ballot would help break the duopoly. More in smaller races, but a start.
listened to a podcast with Gary Johnson last weekend. Pretty interesting guy and quite the accomplished endurance athlete and adventurer. He’s climbed the highest peak on each continent, which is pretty cool. Seems pretty well positioned to capture disaffected center-right types. If he gets his poll numbers up, he could get in the debates, which I think would provide a huge boost (or at least lay bare clear media bias against non-establishment - i.e. non-Hillary). There’s a theory out there that the establishment (including the media carrying Hillary’s water) wants him to poll higher in order to steal Trump votes.
He got some press today. One good article and one pretty bad one. Can’t remember where I read either of them.
Anyway, I guess the powers that are in charge of the first debate are making room for a third podium. It’d be awesome if Gary could participate.
My main complaint is that I’d like to see the Johnson / Weld ticket reversed, but that’s a small issue.
CNN has been pushing him for a few months now. They’ve given him 2 town halls and have had him on at least 3 other times. Interestingly, MSNBC rarely even mentions his name.
Hillary is a liar and criminal. Trump is an egomaniac.
the more I read about GJ’s platform the better I feel about voting for him.
I encourage democrats who are not big fans of Hillary to take a look at Dr. Jill Stein.
The anti-vaxxer wacko.
I’m not a Stein supporter, but I suspect the anti-vaxxer tag is a political hit job by the DNC.
This country is a 2 party system and will stay one. If you’re voting 3rd party, you’re just helping one of the two regardless of denials. Just be careful who you help…
Ah yes, fear based politics.
Doesn’t sound like a very progressive attitude.
that is like saying eating at Burger king is helping Taco Bell beat McDonalds. I really don’t care who beats who in the battle of Taco Bell and McDonalds because I don’t want to eat either of them.
This is reality, you may choose to deny it, but it will continue to exist.
Why would those two parties have to be the Republicans and Democrats? Why couldn’t’t that change over time to say Libertarians and Democrats?