My proposal for a Third Party

[Jed Dilligan]

I don't know what they'd be called. Maybe the Securitists? Their fundamental platform would be that Americans are not competent to run their own lives, so they should give money to the government to do it for them.

From both sides they can take the Terror Warriors and whatever Drug Warriors are left. Anyone who thinks that fighting terrorism or drugs should be the government's number one priority can join. Law 'n order pols of every stripe are welcome too. They can have the CCPOA (CA prison guards' union), MADD and all law enforcement organizations--though I don't think the latter should be involved in politics any more than the active military.

From the Republican side, they can take all the various manners of bedroom-snooper (anti-gay, anti-prostitution, anti-porn--oh wait, we have those too...), the radical anti-abortion crowd, and the symbolic politics crowd (you know, flag burning).

From our side they can have all the neo-prohibitionists (tobacco is their target now) and the gun abolishers. Add to that anyone who wants to see any more "protect the CHILDREN" laws passed.

I say the Securitists get 15-20% of the vote, mostly those "swing voters" who bask in attention each electoral season. The two SANITIZED parties can go forward and work on stuff that actually matters.

[acmejack]

1. Did something happen today to prompt this suggestion?

Just curious.

[Jed Dilligan]

4. I guess it was the child-abuse charge for speeding

and the fact that some people were applauding it.

[Kelly Rupert]

2. Any reason we need an authoritarian party?

[Jed Dilligan]

5. So we can kick them out of the mainstream

and focus on the economy and the environment instead of worthless endeavors to make the world "safe."

[Kelly Rupert]

11. People who like power rarely throw power away.

[Jed Dilligan]

12. Yes, they need to have it stripped from them

When we push the CCPOA checks back across the table, and the GOP does the same for its checks from Focus on the Family, etc., we can start getting our freedoms back one at a time. It's going to be a hard battle, but one we have to fight to avoid become the USSA (Union of Soviet Socialist America).

[Cleita]

3. We already have this. It's called the GOP.

What we need is for true conservatives, those in the Barry Goldwater model, to form a new conservative Party. They can have our DLCers too. We then should woo back the Greens and return to the liberal, protecting the working class party that we used to be.
The reasons the Greens left is because the Democratic Party was infiltrated by conservatives who turned them off. It's time for them to come home and time for the Democrats to return to their roots. The GOP will then be a third Party of those 30% RW neco-cons who will no longer have any power.

[Jed Dilligan]

6. The biggest party of all is nonvoters,

how do you propose we bring them in? Ditching the social-control crowd and really, really proclaiming for individual rights and liberties would be my strategy.

[Mythsaje]

7. I loathe ALL the authoritarian types...

As I'm sure I've made perfectly clear by now. Whether they come from the "left" or "right" doesn't matter. They're power-hungry scum who think THEIR ideology trumps all others.

Fuck 'em.

[Jed Dilligan]

8. My sentiments exactly

They should be buried in their own third party. And the concerns of our current irrelevant third parties--civil liberties and the environment--could replace the law 'n order scam in the political mainstream.

[Mythsaje]

9. I only wish it were possible...n/t

[Jed Dilligan]

10. Why isn't it?

We're witnessing the implosion of the GOP now, and possibly facing our own implosion in coming years. I think whatever party comes out of this turbulent time needs to distance itself from the authoritarian minority.