Don't commit 3rd-party suicide

Excellent piece which makes the point I have been trying to make to friends for quite a while.  This is an extremely important election. It is important that we elect the most conservative candidates we can, which have a chance of winning, in November.  The time to cull the party of RINO's and liberals is in the primaries, not the General election.  There are several candidates here in California who won their Primary races of whom I did not vote for.  However, even though some of them are not my ideal candidates, they are miles better than the liberal Democrats they are facing.  Some of these races are tight.  Throwing your vote to a third-party candidate who has absolutely zero chance of winning to register your disapproval of a less-than-perfect candidate only helps their opponent.  I am no huge fan of Carly Fiorina, but sending Barbara Boxer back to Washington is unacceptable.  That is also why it is so detestable that in close races, where an actual conservative has won their primary contests, people like Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, and Charlie Crist in Florida refused to accept the will of the primary voters, and are actively undermining the conservative victors, by running as a write-in and 3rd party candidate respectively, in a feeble attempt to hold onto their own power. Voting 3rd party virtually guarantees we'll continue to see government becoming more and more tyrannical.

Don't commit 3rd-party suicide
By Judson Phillips © 2010
Judson Phillips is the founder of Tea Party Nation. Follow him on Twitter.

We are now inside of three weeks from the general election in November. The inevitability of a huge Republican landslide is looming. Even George Soros said he cannot stop the Republicans this year.


As the drumbeat of victory grows louder this year, within the tea-party movement there is a small but loud group calling on members not to vote Republican, but instead to vote for a third party, such as the Constitution Party or the American Independent Party.

Those who call for tea-party people to vote for these third parties point out that the Republicans cannot be trusted. The last time the Republicans were in power, they were as bad as the Democrats.

They are absolutely right.

George W. Bush and the Republican Congress of 2001-2007 spent money like drunken Democrats. They did not deserve our trust and abused that trust.

Unfortunately, we have no alternative.


America does not have a parliamentary form of government. If we did, forming a tea-party "party" or voting for a third party would make sense. Even if the party could not gain a majority, its clout would be so great that it would have to be included in a coalition government.

But this is America. We have a two-party system. One party, the Democrats, have already told us where to go and how to get there. That only leaves the Republican Party.

For those who still support these third parties, let me point out that none of them has ever elected a senator, congressman or governor. I am not sure they have even gotten someone elected as dog catcher.

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• Barbara Boxer, Carly Fiorina on the edge (sfgate.com)
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