WWTBAM Bored

In 2016, when the two major parties nominated candidates with historically low approval ratings, the Libertarians nominated Gary Johnson, former state governor, and they pulled 4,489,223 votes at 3.27%--a record and a sign that future growth would be possible under similar circumstances.

In 2020, they nominated never-held-office longtime party hack Jo Jorgenson, who is spending her time complaining about her treatment by Nickelodeon and heading straight towards another utterly insignificant showing.

In a country that's been yearning for an alternative to the mediocre candidates and political gridlock produced by our two-party "system," when is someone going to get it? Ross Perot pulled 19% nationally after running the goofiest possible campaign. We are so ready for a credible alternative.

Buffacuse wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:07 am

IIn a country that's been yearning for an alternative to the mediocre candidates and political gridlock produced by our two-party "system," when is someone going to get it? Ross Perot pulled 19% nationally after running the goofiest possible campaign. We are so ready for a credible alternative.

The problem with the Libertarians and other would=be third parties in this country is that they try to run from the top down rather than the bottom up. They'll run a candidate for President, maybe in a Senate election (as here in Georgia), but rarely in House elections and almost never in local elections. All the Libertarians can do at the statewide or nationwide level is act as a spoiler. At the local level, they could win some seats and get enough of a hold in state legislatures to affect the balance of power. That allows them to align with one party or another to form a majority coalition and, more important, to get some say in how things get done. This is how third and fourth parties get a say in European politics.

But as long as they choose to sit there and run for President and nothing else, all they can do is spoil things for one of the major parties instead of actually having a say in how this country or any state is run.

By the way, here in Georgia, we have a strange rule that says that a candidate must get 50% of the vote in the general election or there will be a runoff. We have two Senate elections this year. In the regular election, Jon Ossoff and Sen. David Perdue are very close, but the Libertarian could well get just enough votes to throw this into a runoff. In the special election, there are 21 candidates, including a Libertarian and an ex-Libertarian running as an independent. It's almost sure to go to a runoff in January as well.

Buffacuse wrote

In 2020, they nominated never-held-office longtime party hack Jo Jorgenson, who is spending her time complaining about her treatment by Nickelodeon and heading straight towards another utterly insignificant showing.

This isn't really on point to Buffacuse's third-party remarks, but I can't resist mentioning a local Unaffiliated county commissioner candidate (used to be Democratic) who spends all his time complaining about how the Dems "hand picked" his opponent. He's full of hot air, but he's going to get some votes just because he's fifth generation, and he's so good at whining.

In the past few days I've seen YouTube advertisements for Brad Barron, the "conservative libertarian" candidate for U.S. Senate here in Kentucky (running against "Moscow Mitch" McConnell and Amy "I'm a Marine and a mom" McGrath. He's "100% Second Amendment, 100% pro-life, and 100% in favor of term limits". I guess YouTube ads must be cheap because I haven't seen any TV or heard any radio ads for him.