[ExI] libertarians

[Adrian Tymes]

On Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 7:18 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> From: efc at swisscows.email <efc at swisscows.email>
> >...Wow, that would be something! Maybe the timing is good and maybe people
> are getting tired of the endless democrat vs republican fights and want to
> do something finally?
>
> If it is ever going to happen Daniel, it will be next year.  Both
> mainstream
> parties are heading towards nominating extremely unpopular candidates, one
> of which might be in the depths of impeachment hearings and the other one
> in
> court or in jail.  The current civil war in US government isn't going to
> settle down by Nov 2024.  There are compelling candidates out there who can
> beat both of them.  Sure would be nice to see the duopoly broken.
>

They've already effectively quashed it for next year.  See the bipartisan
maneuvers, across many states, against the No Labels attempt.  2028 remains
possible at this time, though.

I suspect that a far more viable way to break the duopoly starts with state
legislatures and Congressional candidates, and does not  try to field a
Presidential candidate until after it has a significant number of elected
officials in enough states to have a mathematical chance of winning the
Electoral College.  Not "run a Presidential candidate as well as state
candidates" (because the Presidential campaign will drain so much resources
and attention that effective state campaigns won't be run), not "endorse
those who are also Democrats or Republicans" (because they are Democrats or
Republicans first and, for most purposes, only - regardless of any third
party endorsement).

Such a party might usefully start by targeting districts where the
incumbent was unopposed - or virtually so - in the previous cycle,
particularly Republican ones since they seem to deliver on less promises
(to the majority of voters) than Democratic ones.  Have each candidate
focus on the still-unmet demands of their local voters (which any
non-country-wide campaign should do, another reason to take the initial
focus off a Presidential run).

The third party would be at a major fundraising disadvantage, but there are
many proven tricks to get votes without lots of money: elections aren't
literally purchased by the highest bidder.  There are tricks to effective
monetary deployment, and what matters in the end is votes, not dollars.
Even getting to just 10 Representatives who identify as the same third
party - and not as Democrat or Republican - would get enough attention to
start offsetting that fundraising disadvantage.

Besides, to truly break the logjam, a third party would need Congress more
than the Presidency.  Congress makes the laws - and with enough of a
majority, Congress can override Presidential vetoes.
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