We’ve seen a growing body of evidence of late that far-right social conservatives really are prepared to break with the Republican Party if Rudy Giuliani is the GOP’s presidential nominee.
An LAT/Bloomberg poll released last week, for example, found that Giuliani is still the frontrunner for the nomination, but “about one-third of GOP voters said they would consider supporting a third-party candidate in the general election if the party nominee supported abortion and gay rights.”
A new survey conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found even more striking results.
A solid majority of Republican white evangelicals (55%) say they would at least consider voting for a conservative third-party candidate if the general election is between Giuliani and Clinton. Overall, 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters say they would consider backing a third-party candidate who holds more conservative positions than Giuliani on social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
So, more than half of white evangelical Republicans are prepared to withhold support from the GOP next year — and according to the data, these evangelicals comprise more than a third of the party.
No wonder Giuliani is trying to reposition himself as pro-life.
There is no doubt in my mind that America needs a strong third party candidate that can keep up with the democrats and republicans because quite frankly, I don’t like ANY of them. But how can a third party candidate be taken seriously without some type of voter reform?
The voter reform that I personally would like to see is people actually getting out and voting. It is stunning that America, as a voting nation, the staple of democracy ranks so poorly in voter turnout. People need to start trusting the system again.
The way to do this is through updating the current voting process:
· Maybe instead of a weekday where the polls close at 6PM, on a day that people are at work, make it a weekend. An ENTIRE weekend.
· Educate the people as to who is running, for what and what they stand for.
· Create a fool proof method of voting where security cannot be compromised. (I know, easier said than done. But we put people on the moon. It CANNOT be impossible)
· Make voting mandatory. A democracy cannot be a democracy when our elected leaders were placed into office by less than 25% of the population.
Now if I was a third party candidate for president and I caught wind of a group with such influence as the Christian Coalition and their comments about the conservative republican candidates, I would be trying to get their attention. This just might level the playing field a bit.
However, I would not support this candidate because I don’t feel religion has a place in governing a society.
Which is the topic of a whole other discussion.
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2 comments:
The part of your article that stands out for me is the part where you say people should be educated about each candidate. I agree whole heartedly however there are a lot of Americans incapable of being educated. These people I deal with on a daily basis at my job.
These people can't spell, read (or they plain old refuse to read) These people have very poor comprehension and analytical skills. These people I mention are citizens of the United States. These are people from all over the country. This lack of intelligence is nationwide.
Until Americans want to be considered intelligent we will continue to dummy down. I'm appalled at how stupid Americans have become. We are becoming third world very quickly.
BTW: I deal with people from other countries as well. I have to admit they are much smarter than Americans. They meet more challenges when doing business with an American company however they are much easier to work with because they have pride. They do not want to be viewed as stupid.
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