The poll shows a 51-39 split for Obama and McCain, respectively, when third party candidates are counted. The real interesting data comes when you look at who's defecting for third parties.
| Democrats | Republicans | Independents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barr/Root | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Nader/Gonzales | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 1 |
I'm not exactly what message the GOP is supposed to get when more partisans are deserting for Ralph Nader than for the Libertarian candidate and Ron Paul write-ins put together. Not abolishing government in favor of reducing it to the size where they can drag it into the bathroom and restrain it with a governmentally mandated seatbelt, perhaps?
That's hardly the worst of it for the Republicans.
| Republicans | |
|---|---|
| McCain/Palin | 81 |
| Obama/Biden | 11 |
One in ten registered Republicans are planning to defect to the Dems. That's five times as many as are planning to shift to Nader, and, if you want to get cute, infinitely many as are going to vote for Barr at this level of significance. So what message is the GOP establishment supposed to take home? Be more like the Democrats?
All these guys are doing a fine job planning the revolution, but, even with McCain in crisis, no one's really fleeing the two-party system. And, even as an ardent Obama supporter, I can't say that a world where dissatisfied voters just ping-pong back and forth between the two established parties is one I really enjoy living in.
So, libertarian-leaning, crunchy, or pomo- conservatives, what now? Bow your heads and pray "Next year in the Ballot-Box, not the blogosphere?" Cause from where I'm standing, this year is as much a failure for you as for the GOP.
[I realize the formatting is fouled up, by my HTML skills have proven insufficient. If anyone has suggestions, feel free to comment.)
1 comment:
You've given the most succinct argument as to why third party voting ain't gonna work this time around- well done. Armchair poli-sci for the win!
I'm still gonna cast my vote for Barr/Paul when the time comes around (not sure which yet, honestly), but I agree entirely that we haven't done enough to get our message out- we haven't held a single event trying to raise awareness about third party options on campus, for example, and if we can't even engage politically minded students like we have here at Yale, why on earth do we think we can reshape the national movement?
This is my big critique of Yale's conservative movement in general- we really don't recognize the importance of activism. I'm doing my best now to rectify that and want to in the future (I've already worked on ballot access for the LP, am organizing a large campus wide CLs event that will focus on the 5th amendment but will ultimately boost CL awareness on campus, etc).
But yeah, too much Ivory Tower for my taste (ever thought you'd hear me say that?).
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