Tag Archives: Ron Paul

Strain Out a Gnat and Swallow a Camel: How Reverse Statism Endangers the Republic

Posted on by under Politics, Satire, The Washington Times Communities, World Views

If you want to send a message to Washington, you must speak in its language. Washington only comprehends the electorate’s desires based upon the margin of victory between the winning candidate and the losing candidate from the opposing major party.

If Obama wins, third party votes will go unnoticed and unheeded, and liberals will take the victory to be an electoral mandate to buckle down on the policies we don’t want.

Third party votes do not say, “I don’t like either candidate, so I’m voting for a better choice,” but rather, “I’m comfortable enough with the way things are to spend my vote on a losing cause.”

If Romney wins, the message will be that Americans want Obama out of office NOW, and prefer the general direction that Romney is willing to take. The Romney administration will receive this as an electoral mandate to move as far away from Obama’s worldview as possible.

THE PHARISAICAL PATRIOT: "Ugh, that gnat! I'd rather be dragged through the desert than use that filthy blade." (Click to enlarge)

You might think that your one vote in a liberal district is meaningless anyway – although of course if everyone subscribed to that idea and resulting course of action, it would make a huge impact. Even popular vote-wise, every vote for Romney is a slap in the face of Obama. Every vote for a third party candidate is mere graffiti on the wall.

Many third-party voters are humble and well-meaning, and many are just angry and feeling insubordinate. Either way, I ask you to respectfully reconsider the situation. America made one of the worst decisions in her relatively young life four years ago, and to prolong it would be painful for generations to come.

I now present to you a pamphlet on the 2012 election and Mitt Romney’s candidacy. Hopefully it will answer all of your questions.

Romney praying before making a commencement speech. (Jae C. Hong AP)

But Mitt Romney’s a Mormon! (Fear not)

Our White House has been residence to Unitarians, at least one likely Deist, and multiple Freemasons. Is Romney’s Mormonism really any weirder?

Romney walks down the central staircase inside the Statehouse during a ceremony marking the end of his term as governor on Jan. 3, 2007. (Josh Reynolds/AP)

Romnesia: Misconceptions about Romney’s record

Romney is often mocked for being inconsistent. In reality, he has been consistent in a way that would be difficult for most of us.

THREE-WAY WRECK: George H.W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Bill Clinton at the second presidential debate of the 1992 election season. Due to America's mostly winner-take-all system, third parties virtually never win, but can still influence the outcome of elections. Scholars speculate that Perot's candidacy might have given Clinton victory, since Perot garnered 19% of the vote that most likely would have otherwise gone to Bush. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander)

Reverse statism: A reality check for voters considering third party

If you think an election that can’t be won with your ideal candidate is an election not worth winning at all, think again.

Also of interest: My research paper “Odd Ones Out: Why Third Parties Don’t Fit in the American Political System“.

Just remember: The Federal Reserve. The United Nations. Osama Bin Laden on the loose. The 2008 Financial Crisis. Obamacare. What do these things have in common? Third party voters along with conservatives and libertarians who refused to vote were complicit in their existence.

UPDATE (11/06/12): Why The Founder Of NotMittRomney.com Has Already Voted For Mitt Romney; Former Libertarian candidate: Mitt Romney is the only sane choice for libertarians.

Odd Ones Out: Why Third Parties Don’t Fit in the American Political System (Or, “A History of America’s Proudest Losers”)

Posted on by under Politics
Woodrow Wilson, arguably one of America's worst presidents, had the road to the presidency paved for him by Theodore Roosevelt's egotistical third party run in the 1912 election.

Woodrow Wilson, arguably one of America's worst presidents, had the road to the presidency paved for him by Theodore Roosevelt's egotistical third party run in the 1912 election.

Even constitutional purist icon Ron Paul has not endorsed a third party candidate this election season. That should tell you a little about the dire ineffectuality of third partyism at this fiscally and morally calamitous moment in America’s history.

To add insult to injury, what America is suffering from now is due to a century’s worth of policies, some of which took place because of a series of reckless lone ranger candidates attempting to show up “the lesser of two evils” with some mad hot principle.

I investigated this subject in a research paper for a political science class last year, and I have now uploaded it to Scribd for the purpose of embedding it here:

Odd Ones Out: Why Third Parties Don’t Fit in the American Political System

Here are some excerpts:

“…Two years before Washington made his farewell address, Senator John Taylor of Virginia observed that in time for the upcoming Fourth Congress (1795-1797), ideological polarization was already taking place:

‘The existence of two parties in Congress is apparent. The fact is disclosed almost upon every important question. Whether the subject be foreign or domestic – relative to war or peace – navigation or commerce – the magnetism of opposite views draws them wide as the poles asunder.’

…The primary reason why only two parties manage to hold power in America’s political system can be summed up in Duverger’s Law, which French sociologist Maurice Duverger hypothesized in 1951: ‘The single-ballot majority vote favors the dualism of parties.’

That is, in elections of single-member districts in which the winner takes all (which is the norm across the United States), competition will be tighter and likely come down to only two top contenders. This particularly complements the U.S. Constitution’s design for Congress, as well as the country’s expansiveness. If more than two parties held equal electoral clout in a country of now 50 states, potentially hundreds of parties could result. That might make for lots of entertaining debates, but not much could be accomplished…

…But ironically, trying to increase voters’ say in the matter with a third party actually weakens majority opinion instead of strengthening it. More than being a ‘wasted vote,’ a vote for a third party candidate is actually an indirect vote for one of the candidates from the two major parties, however fallacious it might sound to a principled third-partier.

Political scientist Leon P. Baradat explains in one of his college textbooks that in the two-party system, a hypothetical election might result in 41% of the vote for candidate A, 39% of the vote for candidate B, and 20% for candidate C. Because plurality is needed to win in a single-member district that is a fundamental aspect of the two-party system, candidate A will win a seat of government authority with just 41% of the vote, despite the fact that 59% of voters did not vote for that candidate.

This happened in the election of 1912, in which 50% of the vote was split between Bull Moose candidate Theodore Roosevelt and Republican incumbent William Howard Taft, allowing Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson to swoop by to the White House with just 41.8% plus a chance to score a whopping 435 electoral votes.

This happened again in 1992, when Democratic candidate Bill Clinton won the presidency with just 43% of the vote, thanks to 56.3% of the vote getting split between Reform Party candidate Ross Perot and Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush.

Thus, attempting to improve a two-party system by adding a third party is rather like trying to improve a bicycle by adding a third wheel. Such an addition will not be effective because it is contrary to the entire design of the structure. But there is nothing wrong with refilling or changing the tires periodically.

As I have observed in previous articles, a potential example of this sort of improvement can be found in the Tea Party movement, which played an influential role in the 2010 midterm elections, and has even gained official recognition in Congress through the Tea Party Caucus founded by Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN).”

Also of interest: The Tea Party: An independent third party in the works?

I Never Thought I Would See The Day…

Posted on by under Politics, World Views

…When the Evangelical Christian Conservatives sided with the Socialist Liberals.  I am in deep anguish to see it.  There are so many other things I want to write about and yet I cannot shake the dire straits of this Election from my mind.  I think I might be aging quickly because of this.

Why, why why?  Can not anyone see that this is a trap?  A mousetrap baited with self-righteous principle to lure us away from responsibility and thus let the devil’s choice candidate waltz into power.  Open your eyes, my friends and allies.  Do you really think I would write something like that if I did not sense an ominous threat? 

Satan is an expert at these sorts of things…first he exalts a disciple of his philosophies, then he smears the credibility of the only viable good candidate left that stands between him and his victory. 

If you can’t vote for McCain in good conscience, then at least assure me that you are praying hard that the LORD’s will shall be victorious in this election…and I’m certain the ultra-socialist-pro-choice-Alinsky-liberal is not HIS will.

Of course, my mother explains the dilemma much better and more maturely than I am capable of at this moment.

“Oh I understand all the arguments and vote-your-conscience pleas, but what I do not understand is the arrogance, judgementalism, anger and self-righteous tongue-wagging that I have witnessed in the last few days. I hear out of the mouths of liberal reporters (who make no effort to hide their bias), all of a sudden this “concern” they have of a mother of 5 children, one of whom has Down’s Syndrome, and one who is pregnant out of wedlock…how can she possibly have a role in government and mother her children at the same time? What is she doing and who does she think she is and isn’t John McCain a fool for asking her?…

…And then many anti-feminists are condemning this woman and pointing fingers at her failures as a mother (you know, the pregnant daughter and trying to go to work after giving birth just three days prior, and “she’s not tending the hearth at her home”…) I tell you it feels like the crowd is gathering around and the stone piles are getting higher…and pretty soon the pelting will begin. Or maybe we will just burn her at stake….

….I say all of this because this is what I see plain as day. I am disgusted. I looked today at the Constitutional Party website and Ron Paul’s too, to see what the hype is over these people whom so many godly people have flocked to. The Constitutional Party platform is not all that different from the Republican Platform. They claim to be Federalists, but so is John McCain. Ron Paul has some good economic ideas, but he is not that far off from his own party’s platform, either, except that he is clearly a Protectionist, which would be fine if the world weren’t so dangerous. That is kind of like saying it was better before women could vote, which maybe it was, but it is never going back to that, so the godly women had better vote. People are still mad about the Iraq war, and the liberal media feeds that anger, and buddy, it sure works. Let me tell you something. The war has stirred up a spiritual hornet’s nest, but it had to happen. It had to happen because God ordained that it had to happen. Nobody likes it, especially the military families that are making the sacrifices. I am sure the children of Israel didn’t like it when they were involved in so many wars because they are expensive and people die. But I am telling you God has a purpose in it. Do not forget that. And do not fall for the bait when people demonize George W. Bush. He was the ruler that God used, like it or not…

…We need to be praying. If you are not specifically praying for Yahweh’s perfect will to be done, the Enemy might just sneak in and snatch the victory. The Enemy is already stirring people up to bite and devour one another and to quibble over foolish controversies and get totally distracted. I am begging for you all to pray. Get down on your knees and pray if only one minute. Pray for our sister in Christ, Sarah Palin. Even if you don’t like her or don’t think she is biblically qualified to serve in government, pray for her and her family, because of the love of Christ. Stop tearing her down. If God does not want her in office, be assured she won’t get there. But if He does, we need to pray for her and this nation and wake up and get serious about our responsibilities in a modern day federal republic.”

 

My deepest gratitude to those that sincerely pray along with us.

~Amanda~