Hi Pirate Jo,

This is true, which is why I wrote about our current debate access laws. I've been reading up on this issue and I want nothing more than for third parties to be viable tickets in future elections. Unfortunately, voting for a third party ticket in this election will seem more like a wasted vote. What we need to do is reform our ballot and debate access laws.

Thanks for commenting!

Meg

The reason why I don't feel energized by this election is because I feel as though I will be compromising too many issues that are important to Americans by settling for either candidate.

Unfortunately, I wasn't even aware that there were so many third party candidates running until I carefully examined my absentee ballot. My point is that the election process failed to fully educate the American public about all the possible tickets, and I'm sure there are numerous people who still have no clue that there are options outside of McCain, Obama, and Nader. As I said before, I hope this will change in the near future.

Media interviews, debates, campaign rallies, and platforms play a significant role in my decision as a voter, and I find it hard to vote for a third party candidate when I do not feel fully educated on their issues and how they handle themselves in the public spotlight.

For me, an uneducated vote is what's wasteful.

An important point to remember is that there's other people on the ballot other than the president. Voting for state and even county officials can make a difference in the government, even if they aren't as influential as the president.

If you are socially liberal and fiscally conservative you might be a libertarian. I know the Lib party isn't going to win, but I am hoping that with more and more people feeling angry at government and disgusted with the two major options, people will start looking at third party candidates more, instead of simply abstaining from the whole process altogether.

Campaign finance laws are rigged in favor of the two main parties. The reason people don't know about third parties is that those parties have to spend all their time and money collecting signatures and just trying to get their candidates on the ballot - they don't have much money left over afterwards for commercials and advertising. I think it's going to take a grass roots effort to change the landscape.

Competition would do them all some good! Remember how the Republicans got elected to reduce the size of government, and then went on a crazy spending and bureaucracy-creation spree? Think if they had someone other than the already big-spending Democrats to compete with. I think it would be great to have three or four or five major parties. We get irritated when we only have one cable provider to choose from. We only have two major political parties to choose from, but all we have to do to widen our range of choices is to vote for another choice - they are already right there on the ballot.

I am also heartily sick of all the hatred and division that comes from having two major parties. Red vs. Blue - yuck. It's time for that crap to end, too. People get polarized on the basis of a single issue, like abortion, say. Well what if you had THREE parties that took one position, and three other parties that took the opposite position? Now you can have your way on that one issue, and also maybe a few others. But of course, people have to stop thinking of third-party votes as wasted ...

Hey Meg,

I steer away from political discussions for the same reason as your post: I'm not voting either. One of my contractors tried to convince me to vote for Obama stating the obvious reasons but also pointing out the good points in McCain. But like I said to him, this country has a lot of healing to do and most of the healing does not affect middle america as much as the media makes it seem. We need to fix our government, we need to fix our banks and our international interests. These need to come first before the people are really helped and that has not happened for quite some time already. Whoever gets elected has four years to fix things and its not like things get fixed over night. The one thing everyone is lacking is money and if all the money has to be given to banks and such, how can they really change anything. This president will build the foundation for future presidents to build upon. But to stand there and promise things that do not look likely in the next four years (which is not a whole lot of time) because there is already too much on your plate is not convincing me to vote.

Bravo Meg for sticking to your guns.

My political beliefs are much like yours, although more socially liberal, fiscally moderate. And I, too, have my Florida absentee ballot, which both my wife and I will be filling out ours this weekend. I've become so disgusted with the process, and McCain's campaign in specific, that I am voting for Obama, if for no other reason that to (hopefully) show politicians that the Willy Horton / Swiftboat attack ads don't work for the upcoming Gen-Y voters

What are you talking about? We have two EXCELLENT candidates to chose from. Whether you want to increase the size of the military, or stay in Iraq for 100 years, we all have great options that the major 2 parties gives us.

What I'm really worried about is an independent candidate who might cut funding for the Department of Defense. I work for Lockheed Martin and without massive government contracts and subsidies for our products, I could get a paycut. A 3rd party might instead choose to devote hard-earned tax dollars to frivolous pursuits like health care, education, and energy, which have nothing to do with American global hegemony. I fear for the future if this happens.

Please vote for Obama or Mccain. And don't forget to worship Satan!

Meg,
I'm in the same boat. I'm fiscally conservative, socially liberal. I did an online quiz once that told me that makes me libertarian, but I consistently vote Republican (and am registered Republican) because the fiscally conservative part is more important to me than the socially liberal part.

I would LOVE to have a third party that was viable and competitive. If nothing else, this election year has gotten me very interested in grass roots movements. I want my vote to COUNT. I want my interests to be spoken about by someone, anyone, not plugging the party line. I think that cannot happen unless something very big happens by the people in America.

I had heard that once upon a time thinking people had a way of changing the way this country was being shaped. I'd like to see that era rise out of this very polarized election.

I think part of the problem of the two parties is that in order to get as far as a presidential nominee, you have to convince the party officials that you will tow the line. I think a strong third party would shake that entrenched not-so-secret society up a bit, which would only do this country good.

My problem is not knowing what to do about it. How do you get a whole bunch of singly unhappy people together into a large enough group to make a difference?