unless they can have a significant number of independents elected into senatorial and representative positions--they have absolutely no possibility of enacting any legislation. People know this--so they don't vote for indpenents;
You're a nobody if you can't make it in one of those two main parties. Its all about money and media attention. Unfortunately third parties do not have that.
because nobody knows who they are. Independents and third party candidates usually do not have enough money to present themselves on tv. Also they are mostly ignored by the mainstream media.
this is very sad because most Independents and third party candidates would be better presidents than the Republicans or Democrats.
i know i don't vote independent because at this point there is no chance of winning, and it's ALWAYS the Republicans that get votes siphoned off......never the Democrats.
that's how we ended up with Clinton when Ross Perot siphoned off enough votes that Clinton won with 43% of the popular vote.
it's a catch-22 system........ we have to be willing to keep voting independent until there are enough of us to win. but it will take decades - and decades of Liberal rule will leave NOTHING but a rotting, stinking corpse of a nation.
sorry, but that's the hard truth.
we need an independent like Ron Paul who can 'pretend' to be a Republican but then get into office and be the independent he/she is.
hell, Obama pretends to be a Democrat, and he's under the impression that he's a marxist dictator and his mission is to cut America down to size. (the size HE thinks it should be)
Both Obama and Romney spent over $1 BILLION dollars this election. An independent would need at least that much to be a viable presidential candidate, but without a massive political party helping them to raise that money they don't have a chance.
Also, between the two major candidates they have most peoples' primary concerns covered. Gun nuts, religious dingbats, warmongers and racists have Republicans to vote for. Welfare recipients and social liberals have Democrats to vote for.
An independent candidate who wanted a reasonable chance to be elected (and not just spoil the election for one of the other candidates) would have to position themselves somewhere in the middle. Probably their best shot would be to be a fiscal conservative and social moderate and thus try to go after the 70% of the population who are somewhere in the middle. Still, at this point the chances are slim. Independents have a lot better chance at elected office at the local level. Even being elected governor would be a tough job for an independent.
Political parties have an enormous amount of wealthy donors, media support, established resources, sources of endorsements, etc.
In the US, the two biggest parties are the Democratic Party and Republican Party. Even if a candidate starts off independent, sooner or later, they'll find it impossible to move forward with their campaigns if they can't get the backing and support of one of those parties.
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Comes down to that almighty dollar. Independents don't have the resources to raise the kind of money it takes to have their "voice" heard.
unless they can have a significant number of independents elected into senatorial and representative positions--they have absolutely no possibility of enacting any legislation. People know this--so they don't vote for indpenents;
because you take a vote away from your original political party to give it to the independent.
the independent doesn't have enough votes to get elected.
that leaves you with two weak political parties and the win goes to the 3rd party that you're against.
You're a nobody if you can't make it in one of those two main parties. Its all about money and media attention. Unfortunately third parties do not have that.
because nobody knows who they are. Independents and third party candidates usually do not have enough money to present themselves on tv. Also they are mostly ignored by the mainstream media.
this is very sad because most Independents and third party candidates would be better presidents than the Republicans or Democrats.
it's not that they're not popular........
i know i don't vote independent because at this point there is no chance of winning, and it's ALWAYS the Republicans that get votes siphoned off......never the Democrats.
that's how we ended up with Clinton when Ross Perot siphoned off enough votes that Clinton won with 43% of the popular vote.
it's a catch-22 system........ we have to be willing to keep voting independent until there are enough of us to win. but it will take decades - and decades of Liberal rule will leave NOTHING but a rotting, stinking corpse of a nation.
sorry, but that's the hard truth.
we need an independent like Ron Paul who can 'pretend' to be a Republican but then get into office and be the independent he/she is.
hell, Obama pretends to be a Democrat, and he's under the impression that he's a marxist dictator and his mission is to cut America down to size. (the size HE thinks it should be)
Both Obama and Romney spent over $1 BILLION dollars this election. An independent would need at least that much to be a viable presidential candidate, but without a massive political party helping them to raise that money they don't have a chance.
Also, between the two major candidates they have most peoples' primary concerns covered. Gun nuts, religious dingbats, warmongers and racists have Republicans to vote for. Welfare recipients and social liberals have Democrats to vote for.
An independent candidate who wanted a reasonable chance to be elected (and not just spoil the election for one of the other candidates) would have to position themselves somewhere in the middle. Probably their best shot would be to be a fiscal conservative and social moderate and thus try to go after the 70% of the population who are somewhere in the middle. Still, at this point the chances are slim. Independents have a lot better chance at elected office at the local level. Even being elected governor would be a tough job for an independent.
Political parties have an enormous amount of wealthy donors, media support, established resources, sources of endorsements, etc.
In the US, the two biggest parties are the Democratic Party and Republican Party. Even if a candidate starts off independent, sooner or later, they'll find it impossible to move forward with their campaigns if they can't get the backing and support of one of those parties.