Third Party Option: Pros and Cons

There are practical reasons for either joining or rejecting the third party option as a venue for political action. Having been in a third party all my life, I can tell you that they cannot succeed in winning even one US Congressional district. It has nothing to do with the message. It's just an issue of simple math.

Following is a list I've made of Pros and Cons for your consideration:

PROS

1. Third Parties are Platform Driven. The R/D platforms are irrelevant to major party candidates. Their platforms are a reflection of the deals each party has made to the many factions they represent. A third party uses its platform to recruit leaders and direct their candidates toward a common goal.
   
   
2. Decentralized Authority. The by-laws and charters of Third Parties are usually designed to minimize central authority beyond a reverence for the platform. If outside investors "take" the party, they only get title and not the membership.
   
   
3. Leadership Training. Running for office is good experience for local citizens, and a third party is fine for that.
   
   
4. Ballot Positioning. In PA (and other states I'm sure), third parties are not part of the primary process and have their own rules for ballot access. This can be a major advantage for getting members elected and serving in local office. (Most third parties, however, have no focus at all on local government, rather toward national issues). The major parties will not cover all races with a candidate, allowing third parties to pick and choose their races after the primaries, and leading to 1:1 or even unopposed races.

CONS

1. Ballot Access. This will consume the majority of the campaign season and resources. Each state has its own BA requirements. Pennsylvania is one of the more draconian states, and the R/D parties routinely challenge petitions, personally threatening the candidates with legal fees of over $150k. 50-state BA is nearly impossible.
   
   
2. Media Access. Most newspapers will be nice to you and give you a write-up or even an editorial comment, but the press is motivated by advertising. National television will black out third party races and televised debates will generally not include you.
   
   
3. Straight-party voting. Where voters can simply vote Party, as many as 30% of votes cast will go R/D leaving your candidate to pull 50% from the remaining 70%. This makes victory a mathematical improbability. I've seen one candidate get close in a 1:1 race with 44%, which was overwhelming support from the community, but the straight party vote was simply too large a hurdle.
   
   
4. Limited Resources. A third party generally doesn't raise money from lobbies or civic groups, and has to rely on member donations. My US Congressman had 2 million in his war chest before the race even started, here in a district of a half-million souls. If 5000 people contributed $20, that would be incredible right? But that's only $100k, peanuts when it comes to media saturation campaigns.
   
   
5. Resistant to Growth. As a third party is platform-driven, so an inner circle will develop to contain the platform and keep the party "pure" as it grows. The party seeks true believers and concentrates on internal education. Conventions usually degenerate over factionalism, and disgruntled activists will be disruptive. They demand a "controlled growth". I tried to remedy this in the LPPA with a brief statement of 10 principles that would have no public objection and would allow candidates to set their own personal platforms, but the old guard radicals went ape and we spent the next three years fighting instead of three years growing. Now the radicals control the party again, and it's dead here in PA.
   
   
6. Vulnerable to Hostile Takeover. Every third party has a charter of by-laws defining what is necessary to take that party over. The old guard is able to keep the party from growing (big fish in little pond), but this is its weakness should a concerted effort be mounted to seize title of the party. Recruiting 50 people to attend a state convention as delegates is a small affair given adequate cash and time.
   
   
7. Infiltration. This is another concern, and I'm not saying this to be paranoid, just to be practical. Operatives from the R/D leadership will look at your party the same as they look at non-political civic groups, and will establish a contact within your organization. I don't know that this is necessarily a "con", but it is something to consider.

So the third party option really comes down to what you expect to accomplish with your own efforts.  If your focus is on feeling good about a platform and having some friends to talk about it all day, then the third party is fine.  It's almost like collaborative science fiction writing, because there is zero possibility of you or your party ever influencing the US Congress.

If, on the other hand, you want to push our federal government in one direction or the other, then begin by "occupying your precinct" and focus on the Primary elections.  Find candidates you can support and help them build confidence in the community.  Yes, the R/D parties are corrupt to the core, but that doesn't mean YOU have to be, nor does it mean that your candidates have to be either.

The Benefits of Citizenship

Citizenship is a privilege.  This is how we define ourselves as "nations".  The idea of a democratic republic has been around for thousands of years, and is as old as the idea of Civilization itself.

As a Citizen, you should expect certain Benefits, as for any Membership in any society.  The right to vote, for instance, is a common benefit of citizenship.  If nothing, a Citizen should expect at least the rights of a Prisoner,  But citizenship should confer much more than just that, and to each of us equally:

I recommend the following:

1.  Universal health insurance, free from "payroll taxes";
2.  A clear Pension and Disability policy;
3.  Full tuition grants for education in academic or vocational curricula, based on merit;
4.  That county and municipal job services actually provide jobs in their local area, public service jobs if necessary, for anyone able and willing to work;
5.  That Federal block grants be used to fully fund county and municipal governments in conjunction with a single-tax, "revenue sharing" plan;
6.   ... something about general assistance
7.  .... to be continued.

That's as far as I've gotten.  Infrastructure and Civil Protection are the next big topics.  But what you see above is an outline of SPENDING issues.  It can't be considered a "Fiscal Policy" unless it includes the questions of Taxation and Banking.

I'm working on that.  I'll come back to this thread and edit it if I come up with anything.

What do you think so far?

I'm tired of the word "Patriotism" applying to crazy people.  This is America.  We live in a democratic republic, and there are those today who would corrupt that very same.  Strange too, because it is THEY who hide behind the Flag, claiming to represent the Spirit of '76 that defined the beginnings of a truly Progressive nation.

Right or wrong, America stood against Monarchy for 100 years and against "Communism" for another 100.  We find ourselves today SO corrupted by Money and Power that neither the Democracy nor the Republic it is intended to control has any real effect today.

The Coup is over.  It began with Reagan (Nixon actually, but ...), and it ended with Obama.  The next Presidential election will be for Emperor.  Mark my words.

The real fight this nation has is at the US Congressional District level.  What a game of Gerrymander was used to secure GOP dominance!  And the corruption of the Democratic Party is almost complete.  How many "progressives" are there, really, in our federal legislature today?

People aren't stupid.  They know there's a war on.  All this noise from the "right" has been everywhere, billions invested, with wimpy MSNBC push-back.  Honestly, I think Stephen Colbert is one of the few voices saving this Nation.  Think about it.  People don't want a revolution, they just want a better world.

Job opportunities, health care, pensions, education... these are the issues of "social welfare" that I believe should be universal to every US Citizen.  The are not the entirety of where government should "spend", but they are an essential part of it.

If you believe that the function of government is to "protect the people and secure their rights", then the expansion of Citizen Rights should be your definition of "success".  Life doesn't have to be as hard as it is for so many.  We don't have to endure poverty or injustice.  We, as a Nation, can provide certain Benefits to each and every Citizen, and that's what I intend to do.

Egypt, and the Quest for Sovereignty

Great events are unfolding in the world today, here at the crest of this great wave of humanity as it spreads over our entire planet and up, into the heavens. While I, here, in the comfort of a small home in western Pennsylvania, am not directly affected by these events, I do hold a great concern toward them, as I hope you do.

Modern geopolitics is now focused on Iran as the remaining centerpiece for Islamic theocracy.  Yet, the images of their presidential elections a few years ago shows a nation desiring and growing as a democratic republic. This is what the protests in Egypt are today, the largest protests in human history. They protest, not for the spread of some ideology.  They protest for Citizen Rights.

It's funny too, in a way.. Human civilization really hasn't been around all that long, not in the great scheme of things. Egypt was one of the early agrarian cultures to emerge from neolithic man. Sovereignty was extended over the Nile Valley some five thousand years ago and has remained, in one form or another, to this day.

The democratic republic, as a general model, has also been around for thousands of years. It too has evolved, and recently covers most of the land on the planet. This came to Egypt in 1952 just as it came to many nations in the wake of World War Two, and the people of Egypt have, for half a century, been part of a global, progressive community.

Now, in the year 2013, they have assembled by the millions, a full quarter of the population, to demand citizen rights. It is by citizen rights that the democratic republic defines and controls its own government, and the people want those rights.

The Egyptian military is neutral in all of this, being funded directly by NATO and the US Government. They are not shooting people in the streets, in spite of the overwhelming protests going on right now as I type. The protests against Mumbarik in 2011 are dwarfed by the protests, and counter-protests, toward the new Morsi regime.

So there you have it. A petition of 22 million Egyptian citizens want new, fair elections. They want citizen rights and they do not want to be ruled by a theocracy. They, like me sitting here in the comfort of my Pennsylvania home, just want peace and prosperity, liberty and justice, for all.

My opinion is that the UN should supervise elections in Egypt immediately, and should continue to support the Egyptian military as a neutral policing force that respects human rights. Representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood should have their seat at the table, but Morsi should not be backed by Iran or by the West by suppressing and corrupting the democratic process.

Liberty and democracy are not opposing ideas, they are two sides of the same coin, two principles of the democratic republic that should guide Egypt in their quest for sovereignty.

Kicking the Hornet's Nest

Conspiracy is fun.  Perhaps it's my conservative roots, perhaps it's just a natural reaction to a good ghost story.  And like a good ghost story, here's one you haven't heard yet:

In December of 2012, while we were all waiting for the end of the world, the Republican Party was in complete shambles.  Yes, they continued to control the US Congress, but they were divided and beaten.  It appeared that, perhaps, the beast of Austerity was finally slain, and America could breathe a sigh of relief.

Of course, that's not the situation now, just 3 months later.  For some unknown reason, the Democrats in the US Senate chose to pursue a list of social policies, including gun control, rather than issues that could have driven the Republicans into the ground, like Social Security, the Post Office, bank regulation, and ending the Bush tax cuts.

And instead of swinging America back to a moderate position, we now see conservatism even stronger than ever.  Instead of marginalizing the right-wing radicals, this latest string of Democratic initiatives has energized and empowered them.

Obama is caving on every single economic issue, he's championing our radical foreign policy, and he has fully left progressives in the dust.  These social issues are just an excuse to get everybody fighting again.  The Democratic Senate continues to issue bills that they know won't pass the House, but that don't challenge the grassroots support that the Republican House still retains.

And Austerity continues.

So, is this a conspiracy?  Reasonable people will weigh in on every issue that's put before them.  But who puts these issues before us?  Have you noticed that for the past 3 months, all that MSNBC wants to talk about is guns and gay rights?  I mean, sure, we all have opinions on that, and reason should prevail.  But is THAT the issue facing America that should be unifying us?

If you want to get rid of a hornet's nest, you don't go up to it and smack it with a stick first.  That's just stupid.  So either the secret masters behind this battle plan are stupid, or they're diabolical.

Help me uncover this grand conspiracy, this great betrayal.  There's no need to attack Social Security and Medicare, no reason to kill the Post Office, no reason to starve America into submission.  And there's no reason to empower your enemies with pokes and prods when such core issues are at stake.

Liberty, Democracy, and the Political Center

This blog began three years ago as part of a US Congressional race.  Recently, I created a YouTube video that caps off my activities in the Libertarian Party and explains why I can no longer support that organization any longer.  Please give it a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STzf4EuDHog

Transcript:

I served for 30 years as an active member of the Libertarian Party,
and then another 3 years trying to re-brand the Pennsylvania chapter as a moderate, common sense and full-fledged political party.

Here in Pennsylvania, we soon limited the radicals by a new, simplified platform,
one that respected their extreme ideology but that would also accomodate
other moderate views... and therefore many more people.

Unfortunately, the radicals saw it as Heresy, and nothing was achieved in 2 years due to in-fighting and hack politics.

My only choice was to either surrender the party,
      or to stop negotiating and expel the radicals from the party altogether.
I chose to leave.

So, while I'm at the end of the story, let's move on to the beginning.

I joined Libertarian Party through the Clark Campaign in late 1979

I served as State Chair of the Delaware LP 81-85

And I ran for National Chair at the 1985 Phoenix Convention (where I carried 2 states)

In '89, I moved to western Pennsylvania to raise a family
 and served 4-years as an elected School Board Director

I rejoined the LP of Pennsylvania in 2009 where I came to serve as Secretary for a year, and managed to rally overwhelming support for a new, simplified and reasonable platform, only 10 statements long.

I also ran for US Congress in 2010 and received over 3% of the popular vote.

However, my platform wasn't the normal Libertarian Party BS you see today: 

I advocated single-payer medical insurance, which I justified from a libertarian perspective.

My motto was, "We don't need less government, we need better government"

And built my public statements on the assumption
   that Liberty and Democracy are NOT opposing ideas.


After the race, I started calling myself a "Progressive Libertarian".

I spent 3 years total in the LPPA trying to make it an inclusive, broad-based political party

However, the national Party is under complete policy control rooted in Austrian Economics and Ancap fundamentalism.

I'm done fighting with them.  They'll retake the state party this April and the LP of Pennsylvania will once again be just a right-wing populist group on the fringe of conservatism.

Good news is that I've come out of this experience with a new position, what I call Radical Centralism.

I recognize that, historically, the point of any economic policy is to secure wealth.

That's how it has always been.  Any progress for humanity is ultimately a balance with its conservative roots, between Property and the People.

And that is why the political Center the most volitile position in politics, because that's where change is actually made.

And this is also why Right-Wing Populism, which is what Murray Rothbard advocated, is such a dangerous phenomena in the US today.

They are educating a new Corp of youth and veterans,
 all under councils of Old Guard Conservatives

The trolls you find that spout off about NAP and "voluntaryism" are simply leaders-in-training.

Now, I'm not saying that they are Fascists.  I'm not.  I'm saying that fascists are like Them.

People wrapped up in this Anarcho-Capitalist, Austrian School bullshit need to check themselves.

If you truly believe in the principle of Liberty, it's time you embraced the principle of Democracy as well.

This is America.  For all its faults, the US stood against the monarchies of Europe, from the Congress of Vienna to the end of the Habsburg Empire.  The Austrian School was born under the Habsburgs and continues the tradition to this day.

Anarcho-Capitalism is a very radical view, a belief in the privatization of everything and an end to all democracy.

The Libertarian principles of "individual sovereignty" and "self-ownership", as if people can be owned at all, needs to be questioned.

I'm not calling them feudalists, but that feudalists are like Them.

These "new intellectuals", as Ayn Rand called them, all talk the same, all argue the same way.

They're being trained that way.  They're everywhere.  And frankly, it's exhausting.

Government is not the problem.  Corruption is the problem, and we need to correct it.

I believe that government should Serve== to protect the People and secure their rights.

I think that rights in property should be respected, but that citizen rights must also be respected.

And in referencing the US Constitution, Article 1 Section 8, the phrases "common defense" and "general welfare" should carry equal weight.

Anyway, that's how I see things now.  If you'd like to discuss anything, post your comments and we'll chat.

Thanks for watching.

Liberty, Democracy, & Monetary Reform 2

A new video I posted:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdc6Gbvx9tE

Arguing for a progressive view on monetary reform.  Links to 7 documentaries in the description box.

Less than 9 minutes long.  I hope you enjoy it.

Voting is a Right

Incredible--- that this actually has to be explained.

Voting is a Right.  It is your right as a citizen of the United States, just like any other civil right.  The monarchist, or anarchist, who says you don’t have a right but a “privilege” to vote, is simply wrong.   If anything, rights are the opposite of privilege.  This should be obvious.

There are two guiding principles of American government.  First is the principle of Liberty-- the belief that people have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

The second is the principle of Democracy—the belief that sovereignty should be shared equally by all citizens.  It is the “Consent of the Governed” mentioned in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.  Simply put, Liberty and Democracy are not opposing ideas; they are essential to each other.

And these two ideas have pretty much encompassed the world.  Most nations today enjoy a strong sense of freedom and democracy, and the average citizen enjoys a high standard of living.  We don’t want to lose this.

In many ways, we already have.  The corruption of the democratic process has been overtaking America for decades.  Money decides politics, and our democracy has been turned into some Orwellian game show.

Voter suppression through new Voter ID laws, draconian ballot access laws, secret and unlimited corporate finance, and outright fraud through electronic voting systems--- this is where we have come as a nation.  This is the direction we are going.

Now I’d be the first to advocate Open Primaries and public funding of elections, but that really isn’t going to happen is it?  Seriously, who would invest money in that idea?  A 20-dollar donation from 5000 people would be impressive, but that’s only a hundred grand.  Your US Congressman has millions.

And where the heck is the Democratic Party anyway?  Here in the 64^th State Representative district, they haven’t run a candidate for over a decade.  If that isn’t a clear sign of corruption, I don’t know what is.

You have the right to vote.  Not only is that right being assaulted, but the choices you have on the ballot are being manipulated horribly-- without any interest or regard to our civil liberties.  People should be upset about this.  Like my dad always said, “If you’re not fed up about something, you’re not paying attention.”

Your state representative has the power to introduce change.  It’s only one vote in the House, yes.  But it would be a voice of courage and not complicity.  Unfortunately, when big campaign donors are more important than voters, I imagine that decision isn’t quite so easy as it appears.

Your representative was complicit with the recent Voter ID laws pushed by Gov. Corbett.  Is that what we elected him to do?  Is the voice of our people also the voice of voter suppression?  Without the third-party candidate, there wouldn’t have been a choice at all!  Is this democracy?

And the Democratic Party in Venango is just as complicit-- For not running an opposition candidate, for not organizing their constituents, for not giving a rat’s petootee about the rights of the People, for not running a candidate in election, after election, after election.

It’s the same way with the Republican party down in Pittsburgh, I’m sure.  The terms “urban republican” and “rural democrat” rarely suggest any direct representation in their state government.

The result of our current circumstance is that your right to vote and to participate in the democratic process is almost non-existent.  All we have left is to go through the motions of voting, with blinders on to the corruption of it all.  It’s just sad that year after year, there’s really no choice on the ballot.

Any third-party competition has been virtually eliminated in Pennsylvania.  Unfair ballot access requirements, personal litigation, and outright stupidity have dominated our election laws for the past few decades. 

Yet registration levels in both R & D parties continues to decline as more and more people opt for independent or third party affiliation.  People are not stupid, and they’re not apathetic.  They count on their government to provide them with civil protection, infrastructure and social services, and their confidence in the R/D parties has been waning.

People don’t want to live under a totalitarian government.  If there is no opposition candidate, no public debate, if dumps of cash are the only means to election, then what does a vote actually represent?  Hope?  Please.

They’ve effectively turned our State Representative district into a Princedom, and our US Congressional district into a national Fiefdom.  Elected offices should not be open to the corruption of private investment.  Alas, free and fair elections are a thing of the past.

Notice I haven’t mentioned policy once so far.  This is because policy isn’t the core issue.  Policy aboard ship is irrelevant if the ship itself sinks or the captain goes mad.  A calm appeal to reason is essential to any debate.  It isn’t the results, but the process of government that confronts us today.

Frankly, somebody has to stop them.  The upper echelon of the Republican Party has gotten way out of hand.  The inmates have taken over the castle, and we need to take it back. We have to demand our right to vote and to participate in the electoral process.

More importantly, our Representatives need to demand our right to vote and participate.  Our elected representatives should demand free and fair elections.  The members of our state and national legislatures should represent the people, not the corruption of money.

This notion that government is implicitly “evil” is simply not true.  Democratic sovereignty is much more preferable to the alternatives.  Again, I find this incredible that in 2012 we still have to argue about this.

Look, I really like living here in Oil City.  I come home from work each day, sit on the back porch of my “humble abode”, and look over the Allegheny River valley.  It’s a great place to live, and I consider myself very fortunate.

My local government provides many services at a marginal cost.  The water supply here in Oil City is second to none.  We have cable internet, excellent trash pickup, the roads are relatively well maintained, and they run a bunch of cute public events during the year to bring everybody together.

Sure, we’re like every other small, dying city in western Pennsylvania burdened by debt and mild corruption.   But that isn’t what the people see day in and day out in our “pursuit of happiness”.   We’re just trying to live in peace.  So long as we remain guided by the principles of Liberty and Democracy, we’ll all be better off for it.