If you could start a Third Party, what would it look like ?

[kentuck]

And is the time near for another Third Party? If it were created, would it be closer to the present Democratic Party or the Republican Party? What would be the issues of its foundation?

And would a partition of the present Democratic Party permit those now in power to compete with the Republicans without the nuisance of the liberal branch? Let them fight it out for the Nascar vote, for the security Moms, for the morality crowd, etc. Why should we continue to inhibit their freedom to compete with the fascists?

[Skidmore]

1. It would be based upon the ideas of equality, fairness, and

justice. It would truly appreciate the value of the worker in society and the essential value of each task performed by workers in society. It would embrace the idea and champion the concept that "All men are created equal." It's leaders would go to the citizens first for feedback as a matter of cours, not the corporate entities. It would value investment in the nature's future by making certain that our children are well educated and nurtured. It will honor it's past by making certain that we care for our elderly. It will honor both men and women for their contributions to society and encourage all citizens to consider that they are part of a whole, not the whole itself.

[carnie_sf]

2. Kind of like the greens? nt

[Skidmore]

5. I am considering the Greens as an option., so long as they

don't endorse Nader. I will not under any circumstances consider a vote for a ticket with Nader on it.

[kentuck]

8. The name alone does not qualify for national recognition.

Sounds like mustard or turnip greens.:) Although I agree some of their ideas are very appealing. But I think they need a name change. Reform Party? Liberal Party? Something that says more than a color.

[revree]

3. A progressive party with big balls

and a hard, strong spine!

[pmbryant]

4. It would be invisible

I don't want to start a party doomed to either failure or ensuring the victory of the most corrupt entity in the country.

--Peter

[kentuck]

6. Peter, what you recommend we do to save the Democratic Party?

Do we have to wait for the Republicans to destroy everything before the Democratic Party will be accepted as a suitable alternative?

[Skidmore]

7. Peter can speak for himself, but the first thing I'd do would be

clean house at all levels of leadership.

[pmbryant]

9. Save the country. The Party is merely a vehicle, but the only one we have

We don't want to save the Democratic Party, we want to save the country. The Party is just a vehicle towards that end. It is the only one available, so we have to use it.

We're quite free to change drivers, though.

Party primaries all over the country are open to whoever we want to run. If we have good ideas and good candidates, we should be able to win primaries. (After all, if we can't win over Dem primary voters, then obviously our ideas and/or candidates need some improvement.)

To those who talk third party, please explain to me why you choose to reject the primary process.

--Peter


EDIT: Spelling correction

[kentuck]

10. "...but the only one we have ..."

What if we split from the present Democratic Party? Would we still be Democrats? What if we offered a different face on the Democratic Party? Would you consider that a Third Party also?

[pmbryant]

11. Does this "different face" work within the primary process?

That would be the way to go—offering our own preferred "flavor" of Democrat.

"Splitting" implies abandoning the party and its entire base of voters and elected officials. This only ensures either irrelevancy or the victory of Republicans. We don't have a parliamentary system here.

[kentuck]

12. Ideally, it would work within the primary process...

The only drawback would be the handicap of not having the money that the incumbents may have. However, We should follow the Democratic votes very closely, in my opinion, and offer candidates in the primary to challenge them when they vote like robots.

[pmbryant]

13. Plenty of elected positions without Dem incumbents

No reason to restrict ourselves to those with incumbents. 45 Senate seats with Dem incumbents; 55 without. Etc.

Expand the playing field.

--Peter

[kentuck]

14. True.

:)

[Cheswick2.0]

15. The Woman's Party

It would look like a lot of really pissed off women.

[formernaderite]

16. It looks alot like the Green Party...only without all the time consuming..

rules regarding reaching concensus. Sorry my fellow Greenies...it's just completely inefficient. For anyone else who hasn't experienced a Quaker meeting type "meeting", it is in some ways a life style choice. However, it does not lead to the leadership qualitites necessary in a political life.

[kentuck]

17. We may have no choice...

The Democratic Party may not be able to win with us in the Party. If we were to withdraw as a third entity, but still connected to the Democratic Party when the choice is between Repubs and Dems, it might be the only solution to saving the Democratic Party. There may be too many groups and sub-groups within the Party? Just a thought...

[ernstbass]

18. Stop the war on drugs

It is a total waste of money and many people are rotting in jails for these victimless crimes.

[zulchzulu]

19. Unfortunately it would splinter the Democratic vote in most cases

Depending on what exactly the issues are and how "left" they go, it would be a great party, albeit one that would guarantee a Republican victory every time.

[kentuck]

20. Unless the Party could throw its support to the Democrat in the national

election. If the 3rd Party candiate dropped out and threw his support to the Democrat, would that work?

[Nordic]

25. Well the GOP guarantees a GOP victory every time, so what difference

does it make?

The current Democratic Party can't win an election because they're incompetent, stupid, panderers and have no fucking idea what it means to lead.

They also let the voter fraud happen and have no one to blame but themselves.

Recounts? Why didn't the Dem party make sure we had voted counted properly in the first place?

We have absolutely nothing to lose by forming a new party and letting the Democratic Party simply die out.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. Completely remove the

corporate beholdenness (is that a word? LOL!) of the Democratic party and stir in a big healthy dose of populist policies, loads of backbone transplants, and a heavy emphasis on the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Geneva Convention, etc and you'd have my party.

My party would strive to remove America from the #1 spot on the Global Hypocritical Countries list.

My party would put everything they had into making life better for Americans AND for other people around the world.

No more capital punishment. No more homeless veterans, homeless children. Effective mental health help.

10% of the military budget would be shaved off immediately and funneled into public schools. Possibly 20% of it. And there'd still be billions left for guns and bombs and troops.

Corporate welfare would be chiseled down enormously. And corporations would be told if they want to be considered a person for advantageous financial reasons, they can be considered a person as far as their actions, as well, and held accountable accordingly.

There's a lot more....

[Nordic]

26. Yes, "eliminating corporate welfare as we know it"

should be a #1 goal. (after e-vote fraud). If we can fix that problem, a lot of other problems will get solved along with it.

[T Town Jake]

22. The only faction of the Party that really hurts us electorally...

...is the gun control crowd. I would take the Party as it stands right now, plus moderate Republicans who are really Democrats anyway because of their pro-choice, pro-tolerance, pro-environment stances that drive the dominant right-wing forces in the GOP crazy. Drop the gun control silliness, encourage moderate Republicans (and I actually mean the liberal Republicans, not the "sorta conservative" ones that look moderate just because they are not frothing at the mouth loons like Rick Santorum or Tom DeLay) to cross that aisle to the Party in which they really belong, and the Democratic Party would be virtually unbeatable.
No compromise with the Theocrats or Fundies, though: the GOP is welcome to their votes and association. I'd rather be in the minority Party than ever "compromise" with that scary bunch. And, anyway, their idea of "compromise" is "we win, you lose." Best to fight them tooth and nail right down the line.

[From the south]

23. A center right party

then we would win all the elections. I probably wouldnt join it.... but if i started a party it would be to ensure future sucess of the democratic party

[Nordic]

24. we would be able to elect our leaders

for one thing.

The rank and file would actually have some say in what the party stood for.

I've posted about this a lot, because the Democratic Party is dead. May it R.I.P. If it couldn't beat Bush, it doesn't deserve to exist. Bush is the worst president EVER. Fraud? Sure there was fraud. Why was the fraud allowed to exist? Because the Democratic Party FAILED to address it in the FOUR YEARS between 2000 and now.

We need a party that gets away from the connotations of "liberal" and "conservative". I, for one, am not even that "liberal" and there are a whole ton of "conservatives" who don't resemble the neo-cons one frikkin' bit.

We need a party that rejects both the Democratic and the Republican party line. The Democratic Party is a party of incompetent ass-kissers with no leaders whatsoever, and the republican party is now a party of criminals and gangsters.

I want common sense. Things like "it is common sense to have all our children immunized regardless of whether they can afford it or not".

"it is common sense to protect our air, water, watersheds, and biodiversity".

Stuff like that.

[BrightKnight]

27. The DNC with as pair

I don't want a new party. I want the DNC to grow the balls or brests needed to get the job done.