The arguments against a third party are pretty slim. Noted talk show hosts, Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck oppose the idea and warn us that if we pursue a third party rather than try to change an existing party from within, it will lead to defeat after defeat and make certain Democrats will continue to win elections.
They often sight Ross Perots' attempts at a third party and tell us any similar attempts will meet an identical fate, but Ross Perot was not a grass roots up-swell. Ross Perot was trying to do what actually needs to be done, but he was doing alone.
The Tea Party's have brought about a genuine concern for the way politics and political party's operate. And the grass roots of it all, scares all politicians; no one wants to lose their power, and a third party will make a fundamental change in the political arena.
Limbaugh likes to tell us that "elections have consequences", and he's right; look what happened when we let him persuade us that George Bush was a conservative: Bush tried to give us a liberal Supreme Court Justice; Bush broke his promise to veto Campaign Finance; Bush gave us new entitlements for Drug Prescriptions and Bush gave us a very large public education expansion written by Ted Kennedy (no child left behind). And like the popular John McCain, Bush even tried to give us "Immigration Reform", that was no reform at all. Bush and McCain would give us 20 million "new" Americans who do not even want to become Americans; they just want the benefits of living in America.
A third party is the only alternative, and we can see evidence of that by the elections won by the Club for Growth politicians who won elections against both Democratic and Republican candidates. There is no reason to fear a third party, we need one. The existing party's have made it very difficult for anyone who doesn't belong to one of them, and is not supported by the "big money" donors of those party's, to win a campaign, or election. Practically speaking, the elections are "rigged", so that incumbents have the "edge". And "changing the party from within" is ludicrous. There are too many John McCains who are chairmen of powerful committees, who have the clout to keep themselves at those positions, and persuade "big money" to not contribute to third party types, by defunding previously passed legislation or amending specific rule or laws that favor "big money" corporations.
The system is broke and needs to be fixed, not "changed from within".
The Tea Party's will continue to make a difference and they shouldn't let the Limbaughs and Hannity's dissuade them.
There is a reason why the Tea Party's have appeared and why they are growing and it is not to compromise with the status quo. We need to throw ALL the bums out who have given themselves huge retirement salaries and a healthcare program that is independent of the one they just voted on for us. And the Social Security? There is no money in the fund and today it spends more than it takes in.
And of course we then have to deal with the favors politicians "owe" each other. Today, Sarah Palin is campaigning for John McCain. That is a slap in the face to the Tea Party Movement. Sarah is one of our popular spokespeople, but by campaigning for McCain, she is showing us that she is not much different than the rest of them. John McCain is no more conservative than Fidel Castro is, yet Sarah is spending her popularity with him against a true conservative, J.D.Hayworth.
This stuff will not stop until we elect a slew of Conservatives or Libertarians who stand on the principles of the constitution, and we need blogs like this which will point out the blatant hypocrisy.
George T
