Time for a Third Party?

Longstreet thinks so...

We have heard it said that a third party in America doesn’t stand a chance and that the only hope for conservatives is to stay in the Republican Party and work to change it.

Although, that is a good argument, I hold that it is wrong.

Look, we conservatives have been in the Republican Party in vast numbers since at least the Nixon Administration and we have ALWAYS been treated as the “red-headed-step child.” They tolerate us, so they can get our votes every couple of years, and once the ballots are cast, we are shoved back into the basement and out of sight. I can’t speak for you, but I’m tired of it.

Source: Insight on Freedom

Commentary

Republican Party leaders are most excellent at calling themselves conservative while eschewing the most basic tenets of conservatism. Unless things in the Republican Party change, I predict an exodus of conservatives.

Conservatives will do what Ron Paul should have done in 2008, build a party from the ground up that will be kingmaker or deal breaker for the Republican Party in general elections, and once they started winning seats in a few years...legislation.

I have heard rumblings of a desire to leave the Republican Party since before 2006, and have seen many people change their voter registration to unaffiliated in disgust with the GOP.

The Republican Party has thwarted conservatives like Pat Twoomey, and supported elected RINOs like Arlen Specter (who kept demanding more and more from the party to accommodate HIM), and when Specter left...they look for another RINO, Tom Ridge, because they care more about winning elections over the short term than they do anything else.

The party refuses to engage in a battle for the political soul of America in an effort to "look nice" for the cameras and to "get along" with the political opposition.

Politics is warfare by other means, and it is time the RINOs in the GOP found that out.

Our political system only allows for two power parties as the stable position, especially with FPTP elections. A third party must grow and take the place of one of the other parties in short order (two or three decades) if it is to survive and become a power party. The Republican Party started as a third party...with disgust over the Whigs and a burning desire to end slavery. Christians were in that number of people who started the Republican Party, and they number a good deal of those who are disgusted with the Republican Party now.

So, my fellow conservatives, if we really want to start another party, we must do so on the ground, and compete for election from the local level to the national. Other notable third parties have withered on the vine [Libertarian, Constitutional, etc] because they do not see that what makes up a party is the people on the ground, working in the precincts...unsung heroes who pave the way for candidates at all levels.

With the advent of social networking, we have the tools available...