I remember reading in someone’s blog late last year, “Please give me someone else to vote for besides Barack Obama.” It was a plea to the US Republican party regarding the November 2012 Presidential election. So far, that wish has not come true. The Republican base’s fear of Mitt Romney, I believe, is well-founded; his positions seem to follow the wind. The flaws of the rest of the field are too numerous, too exhausting to mention, but certainly including their collective racial polarization, Rick Perry’s sheer ignorance of even his own position on issues, and Newt Gingrich’s hubris.
This is not that I’m that enamored by the incumbent. There are all of the campaign promises he made that not only did not fulfill, he went 180. The recently-signed legislation which would deny suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens seized within the nation’s borders, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention are among the elements that are terrifying to me. But which of his opponents would have taken a different position?
Andrew Sullivan, of all people, does note some of Obama’s accomplishments. I am happy about some of the President’s positions, notably gay rights, and remain cautiously hopeful about the outcome of SOPA. Also like some fun innovations of his administration such as this one.
What about a third party? There’s this mysterious Americans Elect, which is getting on the ballot in a number of states. Since there is no candidate (yet), it’s really difficult for me to gauge what its impact will be. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the nominee is appealing to me, I would have to still weigh the notion of whether the candidate could win enough electoral votes nationally to win, or at least not give the race to someone worse. Since no third party has EVER won the US Presidency, because of the way the system is rigged, it would make it difficult to select that candidate, no matter how attractive.
Meanwhile, I Wish I Had a Super PAC of my own.
It’ll be an interesting year.
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Belated happy birthday to the FLOTUS, who turned 48 on Tuesday.
ACTUALLY, a third party candidate did win the US presidency one and only one time: His name was Abraham Lincoln, the nominee of the new Republican Party (their previous nominee, in 1854, was John C. Fremont). Since then, third party candidates have served only as spoilers and will remain nothing more than that until the Electoral College is abolished or, at the very least, made proportional rather than winner takes all. Under the current system, a vote for a third party candidate of the left or the right is a vote for their direct ideological opposite—a vote for Ralph Nader, for example, was a vote for George W. Bush. That’s because a third party candidate cannot win enough electoral votes because the system is set-up to favour ONLY Republicans and Democrats.
The solution—apart from abolishing the Electoral College—is “Instant Run-off Voting” which gives third parties a shot at election to Congress, and so, access to the machinery of elections.
The previous election was 1856, BTW. I always took the Whigs to be functionally dead by 1858, but I’ll cede the point.
Personally, I’d like to call myself a Whig only because most Americans have no idea what they were or that they were the other party before Republicans. Sadly, most Americans would also spell it “wig”, which would call undo attention to my sparse hair, and that is something up with which I will not put.
I hadn’t realised that you had Whigs in the US,a politcal description presumably imported from the UK.
The name was originally a term of abuse by political opponents, short for the Scottish ‘whiggamor’ or cattle driver. Mind you, being a called a Whig was probably better than being a Tory, an Irish term for a bandit or an outlaw!
i like to say that Obama is the worst thing that happened to america since 9-11 and Pearl Harbor put together
zongrik- Even worse than Cheney and Dub Yuh?
Now see, that’s the problem all around. Most or almost all loyal, decent Americans are afraid to criticize Obama. Why? Because they are afraid of sounding like a knee-jerk Re-pub repeating anti-Obama propaganda. So hardly anyone criticizes him other than dingalings.
Seriously, this is an epidemic that no one talks about. The man is effectively above intelligent criticism.
After the results in South Carolina, Romney will have to take the gloves off to change the momentum of the race.