I agree with all that, but I've already seen what happens when a statement vote for Nader happens; a siphoning effect and the worse of the 2 candidates gets elected and things go all to hell.
I'm starting to accept that change has to come slowly. You can't go from Bush to Nader in one fell swoop, there needs to be a bridging politician and a less drastic change or else people will be hiding under their american flag bed covers, weeping and stroking their shotguns for comfort.
1. A third party slowly keeps creeping in and slowly eats away at the control of the system that the duopoly yields. This could be the case with the IP, however not with people like Dillion believing the "spoiler" bull****.
2. The major party (GOP or DEM) runs better candidates and addresses concerns that led to the third party in the first place. This is what has traditionally happened with third party movements that haven't been anchored by an individual figure.
I don't think you COULD go from Bush to Nader in one fell swoop. What would happen, hopefully, is a gradual eating away of the control that the two parties hold. However, this won't happen as long as they get votes under the rubric of "throwing away your vote" or "lesser of two evils". The fact is that the two parties are KILLING the government with their absolute incompetence. Parties don't change due to "new platforms" or "new ideologies", they change when one party does a crap job of running the country. The Democrats have done NOTHING to deserve where they are now, and are there merely because the GOP hung itself (and the country) repeatedly. The same will almost certainly hold true when the GOP gains power again in the future.
I agree, and respect Nader as well, and any politician who honestly believes what he says. He doesn't change his tune depending on who he's talking to.
McCain has consistently been one of the ten most independent senators, voting against party lines. You can check different senates by changing the 106 to other sessions.
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/cong ... ty-voters/
Incidentally, this idea about McCain being non-independent now? He was 64th in voting with his party in 2006-08, and 93rd in voting with his party in 2004-06. Obama was 13th and 5th.
I agree McCain has really wanted to be president, but I don't understand how you justify your stance with his near political suicide for stopping the Republican judge nominations with the Gang of 14?
I said he has always been solidly conservative. Given the GOP's large scale massacre of conservatism, him voting with/against the party isn't reflective of my broader point. The idea is that people put him at the center when he's not.
The only thing that resembled suicide in that fiasco were the idiots in the GOP pushing to eliminate the filibuster. It is very, VERY difficult to lose in Congress, particularly with the money and name recognition McCain has.
As far as your point about "getting out the vote", I agree. Everything is about voting, and nothing is about putting any thought into who you are voting for or why you are voting. A lot of it has to do with the schools, but that's an entire topic altogether. Ultimately an uninformed vote is worse than not voting.