Some in the Republican Party are calling for, or at least, starting to think about, the possibility of a 3rd party. I can understand their line of thinking to an extent.
They’re not happy with the current crop of GOP candidates and their not at all thrilled with the RNC at this point. They’re tired of the establishment and what seems to be predestined outcomes.
I get it.
This morning, my friend Mark posted the following:
“The Republican Party is officially in Disarray now, with Ron Paul favored to win Iowa, and Mitt Romney the odds on favorite to win the GOP Nomination. The Republican Establishment is orchestrating a strategy sure to snatch victory, from the jaws of certain defeat for Obama. One by one those that have threatened the coronation of Romney has the chosen one, have ceremoniously been taken down by the Establishment kill machine. I never thought I would feel this way at this point, but I think the day as indeed come for a Third Party in the lineage of Palin, West, Demint, Rubio, or a Mike Pence type. We are all tired of compromising our values at the polling place. In retrospect I now believe it was the Republican Establishment, not the DNC, that brought Herman Cain down. The RNC is not our friend. They are our Enemy.”
Mark is a rock solid conservative and someone whose opinion I respect but, respectfully, I differ somewhat on this one.
I would be in favor of a 3rd party but timing is the KEY to making it work.
Right now, we must get Obama OUT of office AND get as many liberals OUT of Congress as we can in 2012. This is something on which I am certain Mark and I, along with all conservatives, agree.
IF we were to put up a 3rd party candidate right NOW, that candidate, regardless of how good, would fail to win because there just isn’t enough time to establish that party, whatever it would be, as a force to be reckoned with on election day.
Timing, friends. It takes timing.
The IDEAL time to fire up a 3rd party is 4 years out from the time the incumbent would term out.
This would allow for a wide open field as well as the necessary time frame in which to establish that party as a party.
I know, we have independents whose votes are highly sought after for good reason and we have Libertarians but neither, in my mindset, are viable as true political parties. Think about it. How many libertarians are currently serving in elected office?
I know that a big part of the need for a 3rd party is to extend viable candidacies to those OUTSIDE the current field of elected officials – but, those who are actually capable of running the nation without an ounce of elected experience are nearly impossible to 
find or identify.
Obama had SOME experience but not much and his on the job training has been a big part of the problem – and frankly, it puts me off somewhat from trying THAT particular experiment again. Yes, Ike had no elected experience and clearly, neither did Washington – but Washington only had to deal with 13 states and a MUCH smaller economy than we have now and Ike stepped into office at a time of “relative” calm.
The world and our nation are in a vastly different position today.
Here’s another problem with a 3rd party. It’s a Party.
Any party that is to be a VIABLE party must become a Party in that it needs structure. Structure, or the over abundance of it, is, in part, what is dooming the Republican Party right now in the eyes of many conservatives.
Right now, I would hazard to say that most conservatives who are thinking about a 3rd party are Tea Party faithful. The Tea Party is, currently, a party in name only. There is no head of the party and no set structure for it. Nearly every state has its own version or chapter of the Tea Party and the basics, the foundational values or issues regarded as most important, vary just a bit from chapter or group to chapter or group.
The bedrock of the Tea Party is taxes and that seems to be a constant but…one Tea Party group thinks candidate A should get the nomination and another thinks candidate B should get it. While I hate to say it, when one Tea Party group endorses a certain 
candidate, a bunch of Tea Party faithful go up in arms and call them sellouts.
There’s a reason for this. It’s because there has not been any structure between all these separate groups and this is why a 4-year ramp up becomes necessary.
In such a time frame, those IN elected office can be vetted via Tea Party established guidelines, voting records can be analyzed and for those OUTSIDE the beltway, their business records, personal affairs and consistency on key issues can be either established or disproved.
I simply don’t believe any party, if it’s an every man, woman or child for themselves party, can succeed but the pitfall is that in becoming a Party, the same sorts of corruptions can begin to seep in as we now experience with the RNC or the DNC.
Right now, I believe the Tea Party holds more power to effect the election as a MOVEMENT that it would as a PARTY.
Drop any 3rd party or candidate into the general election as a candidate for neither the Republican nor Democrat party, and you hand Obama a 2nd term. Write IN any candidate who has not received the nomination of the GOP and you hand Obama a 2nd term.
It’s the Ross Perot effect, and we know how THAT works, don’t we?
My advice for those conservatives who are thinking of a 3rd party for 2012 would be…Start that Party the day AFTER the 2012 election. Unite that party behind SPECIFIC and unambiguous guidelines. Establish it as a Party. Contact elected officials and others who you think would be a strong representative OF that Party and convince them to drop the GOP and BECOME that Party. Work within your states to get them to RECOGNIZE that Party as an OFFICIAL Party before the next election cycle.
It won’t be easy but nothing worthwhile is.
Reality clearly indicates a Trump or Paul as a 3rd-party candidate in 2012 would siphon off just enough of the conservative vote to prevent the GOP nominee from winning but not nearly enough to boost that 3rd-party candidate to the Oval Office. Write in Palin, West, DeMint, Santorum, Huntsman Bachmann, Cain or anyone NOT nominated…Same result regardless of how good any of those candidates are.
A 3rd-party candidate isn’t the WORST idea in the world bu,t it’s a matter of timing, and now isn’t the time.
I believe the day will come when the Tea Party goes from an effective movement to a substantial Party and I also believe the liberals know it too. Why else would they be trying SO hard to be dismissive of the movement and those who are faithful to it? Why 
else would they try throwing absurd label after absurd label at us when none will stick? They always rile most heartily at what they most fear and the emergence of a true PARTY of Tea scares them senseless.
One more thing:
In the establishment of a true Tea Party, I believe one of the most important things would be to have a central figure – but, if the Tea Party is to be different and escape the pitfalls of internal corruption, I believe some system by which that central figure, The CEO or whatever title is deemed appropriate, must be elected, on a regular basis, by the PEOPLE and not appointed by a board of directors.
In this way, the Tea Party would truly become, and stay, a party…excuse me…a Party…Of the People, By the People and For the People.
This is definitely NOT the election to consider a third party, as it would most certainly throw Obama back into office. That’s exactly what their counting on. We…as republican voters have to assume responsibility for what the party has become, by our accepting and electing left leaning, middleground candidates for far too many years. Too many allowed them to convince our party that we must move to the middle to win. Now we’re paying the piper! The best thing we could do is stand our conservative ground and put the party back where it should be. The Teaparty movement has made great strides throughout the country in bringing conservatives together, look what we did this past November. But we still have a ways to go. I left the RNC years ago in protest of their supporting leftwing candidates and I haven’t given them any financial support since then. I’m now an independent…but have always supported and voted republican. The Democrats have given their party over to the Socialist, they’ve been working since the 30’s to gain that control. They achieved their goal with the election of Obama, and you can be sure they will stop at nothing to keep him in office. We must keep control of the House and gain control of the Senate, because if he does get back in the only hope this country has is his impeachment…as you know, that requires both Congressional Houses. We gave the election to them in ’08 by allowing McCain to win the primary….there was no possibility of his defeating the powers behind Obama. Anyone who thinks he will be easily defeated in 2012 has again strongly mis-judged the powers behind him. I hope the teaparty conservatives will put aside their personal likes and dislikes and come together to vote for the strongest candidate who has the strongest chance to beat Obama, and the one who will also be the most apt to put our country first. The RNC and the left leaners in Congress want Romney, because with him it will be the same old status quo. Perry can never beat Obama, Ron Paul will never be elected, because of his radical views many voters would stay home rather than vote for him. The only other strong candidate is Newt Gingrich. He can beat Obama, the fact that the old timers in Congress don’t like him is fine with me…most of them need to go home anyway and the socialist don’t want to go up against him, he has enough experience with their tactics to know how to outsmart them. Anybody else is going to look like a fumbling fool in debates just like McCain did. Unless Obama returns to office, the economy should even be an issue. That will correct itself once he’s gone and a republican steps in. We saw it happen with Reagan
Michigan and Indiana are forming a political structure of grassroots groups into Districts as we type…first, to show the GOP that we can unite in support of a true conservative candidate…second, to organize these groups for a 3rd party effort in 2014 (God willing we still HAVE an election process) if necessary…Missouri also has a State structure in place, and other States are watching…the process has already begun, and the GOP had better take heed, or relegate itself to a mere footnote in political history…
Heard an interesting discussion last night. Stuart Varney, on the Hannity show on Fox News December 27, 2011, hosted by Mark Steyn, said this:
“All of these votes in January, they’re not first-past-the-post winner-take-all. They’re all of delegates apportioned. That means this race is going to last a lot longer. If, into February and March, you don’t have a clear winner, somebody who’s swept the tape, if you don’t have that, doesn’t that invite a new candidate? Into the field? At the last minute? Is that out of the question? Jeb Bush? Surely, if there is no out and out winner, that invites a draft politician.”
Debating this one…Step Away from the Beltway….I may have a few Thinkers on this one…Have some research to do…Remember the Whig Party? I’ll get back to you! 🙂