Run for Fun? -- Gotta Love Third Party Politics (Libertarian, Constitution, Reform, Natural Law, oh my)
I've always had an interest in 3rd parties. In 1988, I can remember going to the local Mattoon library to pick up a book on the 200 "major" 3rd party candidates that year -- including, believe it or not, Ron Paul.
Why do these people run? Hardly anyone has ever heard of them. And even those that a few people have heard of, like Ralph Nader, are pretty much written off as perpetual candidates. Nader had something of a following in 2000. Now he's just a bad joke:
http://www.votenader.org/
And who the hell is Bob Barr? Wasn't he a Republican? Of course he had no chance in hell of winning the Republican nomination, so he's jumped ship to take over the Libertarian party:
http://www.bobbarr2008.com/
They always claim that they're "in it to win it," too, which actually makes Hillary Clinton appear somewhat sane when she says that!
And what ever happened to Ross Perot's party, what was it called? Oh yeah, the Reform Party. That's the party Nader used when he ran in 2004; that's also the party that Pat Buchanan tried to use. Hell, go to its website, and you'll even see a picture of Jesse Ventura. Is this party even active, though? Doesn't look like the website's been updated in a year or more, but even music artist webpages aren't updated until a new album comes out. And, according to Wikipedia, they do have ballot access in four states. I can just imagine Nader salivating at that!
http://www.reformparty.org/
Hmmm... what's my man Alan Keyes doing. Does he have a real job?
http://www.alankeyes.com/
Nope, guess not. Looks like he's running for president. This time, with the Constitution Party. Whoops, apparently not. I guess that Party had its convention in April and selected the house-hold name, Charles "Chucky" Baldwin (is he one of the famous Baldwin brothers??) over Keyes. Keyes is now in prayer mode to figure out what to do... I think god will go ahead and tell him to run anyway, a man without a party (major or minor). Hope at least his wife votes for him. And maybe he has children old enough that will give the old man some support.
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
And here's something interesting, brought to you by the Natural Law Party:
http://www.natural-law.org/
Yes, that's right. If you can't beat them, why not start your own "complementary" government? Dr. John Hagelin ran as the Natural Law party candidate in 1992 and 1996; then in 2000 he ran as its candidate again, as well as the so-called "faction" candidate of the Reform Party (in protest to Patrick Buchanan's nomination). How fun! But no matter how many times he ran, nobody but me seemed to care -- he did earn 0.1% of the popular vote in 1996! (He also earned over 20% of the vote(!) in his home county of Iowa, and some funky county in Idaho. My guess is the people there are more "in tune.") So now he's declared himself President of the United States "Peace Government."
http://www.uspeacegovernment.org/
The mission of the complementary peace government? "The US Peace Government is more than a gigantic policy think tank. The US Peace Government will actually rule the country at the fundamental level of consciousness. It will not compete with existing governments, which are primarily concerned with the management of crises. Instead, it will silently prevent problems from arising by raising the collective consciousness of the country and dissolving the acute stress that is responsible for so much life-afflicting behavior, health-afflicting behavior, domestic violence, crime, terrorism, even war."
Don'tcha just love it. Wonder why nobody ever voted for that guy? At least now he can tap into our unconsciouses and use the power for the collective good!
Why do these people run? Hardly anyone has ever heard of them. And even those that a few people have heard of, like Ralph Nader, are pretty much written off as perpetual candidates. Nader had something of a following in 2000. Now he's just a bad joke:
http://www.votenader.org/
And who the hell is Bob Barr? Wasn't he a Republican? Of course he had no chance in hell of winning the Republican nomination, so he's jumped ship to take over the Libertarian party:
http://www.bobbarr2008.com/
They always claim that they're "in it to win it," too, which actually makes Hillary Clinton appear somewhat sane when she says that!
And what ever happened to Ross Perot's party, what was it called? Oh yeah, the Reform Party. That's the party Nader used when he ran in 2004; that's also the party that Pat Buchanan tried to use. Hell, go to its website, and you'll even see a picture of Jesse Ventura. Is this party even active, though? Doesn't look like the website's been updated in a year or more, but even music artist webpages aren't updated until a new album comes out. And, according to Wikipedia, they do have ballot access in four states. I can just imagine Nader salivating at that!
http://www.reformparty.org/
Hmmm... what's my man Alan Keyes doing. Does he have a real job?
http://www.alankeyes.com/
Nope, guess not. Looks like he's running for president. This time, with the Constitution Party. Whoops, apparently not. I guess that Party had its convention in April and selected the house-hold name, Charles "Chucky" Baldwin (is he one of the famous Baldwin brothers??) over Keyes. Keyes is now in prayer mode to figure out what to do... I think god will go ahead and tell him to run anyway, a man without a party (major or minor). Hope at least his wife votes for him. And maybe he has children old enough that will give the old man some support.
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
And here's something interesting, brought to you by the Natural Law Party:
http://www.natural-law.org/
Yes, that's right. If you can't beat them, why not start your own "complementary" government? Dr. John Hagelin ran as the Natural Law party candidate in 1992 and 1996; then in 2000 he ran as its candidate again, as well as the so-called "faction" candidate of the Reform Party (in protest to Patrick Buchanan's nomination). How fun! But no matter how many times he ran, nobody but me seemed to care -- he did earn 0.1% of the popular vote in 1996! (He also earned over 20% of the vote(!) in his home county of Iowa, and some funky county in Idaho. My guess is the people there are more "in tune.") So now he's declared himself President of the United States "Peace Government."
http://www.uspeacegovernment.org/
The mission of the complementary peace government? "The US Peace Government is more than a gigantic policy think tank. The US Peace Government will actually rule the country at the fundamental level of consciousness. It will not compete with existing governments, which are primarily concerned with the management of crises. Instead, it will silently prevent problems from arising by raising the collective consciousness of the country and dissolving the acute stress that is responsible for so much life-afflicting behavior, health-afflicting behavior, domestic violence, crime, terrorism, even war."
Don'tcha just love it. Wonder why nobody ever voted for that guy? At least now he can tap into our unconsciouses and use the power for the collective good!
Comments
Post a Comment