Third parties serve an useful purpose, they make waves for the 2 major parties when they drift too far from the people. Someone wrote a blog reflecting frustration with the negative effects of some 3rd parties on GOP successes. Several GOP candidates, for whatever reason, were not able to overcome their respective opponents. Rather than begrudging the 3rd parties & the Tea Party the blogger should be asking the soul-searching question or 2 that deals with why the vote went the way it did.
Both major parties have been dwelling in their ivory towers, spinning their plans & dreams w/o fully appreciating what the People want. I believe the Republican Party (GOP) had a better handle on it, though. That is why the GOP did so well.
Anyone who thinks it is possible to win 100% in is living in a dream world. It appeared and was proven right that several of the Tea Party backed candidates never actually had a chance. I do not begrudge those candidates their respective bid, they were willing to take the gamble. That they won in the Primary may say something that the GOP needs to consider when choosing who to put up. Normally, candidates support the Party with donations and time and may even have run for local office. At the local level issues are different from the State & National level, at least in degree. What is the truly valid issues to run on? Who are the advisors? Are they properly attuned to the People or just to the Party? What is the political party majority of a given district, etc?
When a 3rd party or movement has a major impact on the outcome of an election then the 2 major parties need to regroup & try to accurately & in an unbiased way try to read the message being sent and take that message to heart.
Normally, 3rd parties & movements come along when there are enough dissatisfied people out there. 3rd parties are a response to the major parties going a route not agreeable to the voting public & this is more so for the party in power.
According to the polls, if I have it straight, a majority of adults are very unhappy with the health bill that was passed into law. The Democrats had an agenda, they did not care what the people thought and they used their overwhelming majority to force the issue. They paid the price, at least to some degree. I doubt if the framers ever considered how this law would impact job creation because they did not care.
Maybe we need a national health package of some sort. But rather than create something sane they created something that did not really save harmless the People. I strongly suspect the framers were as concerned with protecting the flow of reelection money as anything else. Also, they left out some critical issues, probably due to political sensitivity. Let me repeat what I saw in the news (left leaning even) the American People never supported what was made public from the git-go. Nevertheless, the Democratic Party went down the path they elected to go down.
As for the Stimulus package: How much of it was driven by the concept of "pay back"? A lot of what came to light very quickly after passage sure looked that way. Why hasn't it succeeded in creating more job, rather than just slowing down the number of jobs still being lost? Real long term impact may not have been properly considered.
The view that so long as I have enough money to push my message & my choice of people I can sway the People to vote the way I want, whatever else may be true. Eventually, their attitudes come to haunt them.
To repeat, 3rd parties and other movements have always come along & have a major impact when the 2 major parties forget who ultimately puts them in power.
This turned out to be longer than I expected when I started. There may be more to be said; nevertheless, I am stopping here. I have expressed my thoughts & opinions. Anyone who disagrees is free to do so. I do not demand conformational.
Best.
