Perot in 1992 probably had more claim to be a spoiler, and even that is generally regarded as myth, but I always hate the notion that any 3rd party "stole" a vote from another party that somehow was entitled to it. My first reaction to the news about Yang is that I'm more concerned about states passing laws to prevent ballot access for third parties in the first place. Had anyone wanted to vote for a single Green candidate in Texas in the last election they wouldn't have been able to. A lot of money is spent and legislation passed to protect the duopoly. I mean, the more the merrier. Having been an observer of Italian and Israeli politics a long time, I like the idea that a niche party can win even a few seats and be able to represent the interests of a political minority or provide a legitimate protest vote to the disgruntled voter. The other thought is that I would never call a political party Forward unless I welcomed comparisons to this political party or this political newspaper.
Where's the link? Forward Party Platform - Forward Party Ranked-Choice Voting Nonpartisan Primaries Independent Redistricting Commissions
Basically impossible to do so at the national level. I think they got to start at the local levels and lay the foundation from there. Get ranked choice and independent redistricting commissions into every state.
Exactly why I think it has to be overtly non-partisan. You cannot sidestep the spoiler problem if you're trying to run along side the duopoly. The only way out of the problem is from within each of the two parties. If I were running this movement, I'd make it 100% single issue (democracy reform via RCV and open primaries) and pound that **** into the ground. Once you achieve those objectives, you disband the organization and let democracy run its natural course. The #1 threat to the country is not Rs or Ds, it's the rules that force us to choose between Rs and Ds. It's the pathology from which all symptoms manifest.
I guess a party like this would be designed to break gridlock in the House and maybe a few of those states where Independents have a chance. Rather than big names, that takes planning and geographical triangulation. Do we have few billionaires who are willing to burn money for no reason and a talent farm for those specific areas?
Third parties need to start at the local and state level to build coalitions and actually pass legislation. Start winning the mayor races of medium sized cities and states. Yang and Tulsi always came off as fake moderates. Hopefully this is less about their ego and more about actually achieving something
I used to think Yang might actually be able to do big things, but after his flop of a run for mayor, he seems like a has-been
Agree with everyone, if they are focusing on the presidential race it proves that they care about ego and not getting things done. I do not mind a 3rd party at the local level, I believe they can win a good chunk of elections, however, that takes time and effort, it's not a quick publicity stunt. Yang just wants to increase his profile and make money. He doesn't really care that much about fixing the government.
Jury is still out. I saw an interview with one of the founders saying they were focusing on local elections including mayoral races. From their stated idea of welcoming diverse viewpoints, it seems difficult for them to even have national candidates. It will be difficult for them to have support from a unified base. We'll see.
I don’t care if it’s left or right. I just want dumb ****s like the crazy lady in Georgia out of office.
lol Failed and Has-Been Politicians Start New Party The Forward Party will almost certainly go nowhere. https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/failed-and-has-been-politicians-start-new-party/
Sounds like its doomed for failure. The biggest thing is that they should NOT run a presidential candidate in 2024. If they are serious about change, start with state legislatures and build from the ground up. Build success at the local and state level, then Congressional, and finally the presidency. Otherwise it's just another Reform/Green/whatever party.
I’ll say this about Tulsi though. She’s never worked in a way that helps Republicans in the fact that if she went 3rd party, she’d actually only pull away Trump voters at this point. The only people who are drawn to her are those people who watch her on Tucker Carlson. Yang on the other hand is going on platforms like Pod Save America recruiting from the left and is basically still a Democrat on policy. He never sh$t talks the Dems like Tulsi does constantly. He has virtually no draw from the right. Tulsi only courts the right at this point because that’s where she makes her living in the media.
Do people read? I wish them the best of luck. We desperately need somebody to defend the local levels from becoming the national levels of all-out politics at any cost. Besides, other than large cities, the Dem has ignored the local level for a decade. Is this all about the 2024 presidential election? No. There are 500,000+ elected positions in the United States. Most of those races are uncontested, even though they have the most impact on the everyday lives of Americans. Mayors, council members, school boards. While we won’t shy away from big national races, our focus is on winning seats like these to change the course of our country. This is not an effort to run a presidential candidate in 2024, and no one on the Forward team is currently planning to run for president. This is an effort to build a viable, credible, and durable national political party.
If that's true and the Forward party does focus primarily on uncontested positions and local positions like School Board seats then that's great. However....Even in a local school board election though here in let's say a suburb city of DFW or Houston in lets say Friendswood, the Woodlands, or Southlake, if it's a Yang Forward candidate vs what the GOP normally puts up here in these areas, I don't think the voters in these cities will differentiate between Forward Party candidates and a Democrat. In actuality, most of the non-GOP candidates running for these local positions have no party affiliation at all. It's actually very rare here for local candidates to have party affiliation. The way it goes though is either you are running on Anti-CRT conspiracy theories, or you are running on like building a new fine arts facility. The sad fact in 2022 though is the person running on building a new fine arts facility will be labeled as a liberal Soros funded child trafficker. It didn't use to be like that pre-Trump, and with the organizing apparatus they have. The CRT propaganda has done wonders for them to lump anyone and everyone trying to be non-partisan into the Soro Funded Communist bucket they want people to think of you as even while running for something as minor as a school board member just trying to keep Theatre funding at Friendswood & Clear Brook High School. So at a local level even I don't really think the problem is needing to shed the Democratic Party label like Yang seems to think it is. It's kind of an ignorant understanding of the consolidated organizing and voting power at even the local level for the GOP. When you can't go any further right than where they are you are always going to be to the Left of them, and they are organized and consolidated so unfortunately everyone to the left of the GOP has to be consolidated too. It sucks but it's just the fact of the matter. But yeah for Yang to get candidates running in races that the Dems don't even contest Republicans... that's great. Go for it... .but even then, they are just going to label his candidates as Soros Funded Liberal Communists, and 99% of modern day Republican voters will believe it.
I want to give an example of what the Forward party is up against here with local elections. Here's an example of a typical local school board election where you have two candidates running against each other here in a suburb of DFW in Tarrant County which is one of the most important counties in Texas that could be crucial for swinging Texas blue in a few years: School Board Candidate 1 - 4 terms, on PTA, non-partisan, see her page here below: https://beckyforplace2gcisd.com/ School Board Candidate 2- well just read her bio... http://www.trumpettesusa.com/tammy-nakamura/ ....... Needless to say, School Board Candidate 2 ran on... you guessed it.... CRT, and labeled School Board Candidate 1 (as clean as her background is, and actually she's likely a Republican in her private life) as a Soros funded Communist. School Board Candidate 1 could very well be a Forward Party nominee, and it wouldn't mean anything. School Board Candidate 2 won her election, and won a battle in the school district to get an African American principle "put on leave" because he apparently was teaching CRT... when he's not even a teacher, and the only evidence they presented was a private tweet where he posted that Black Lives Matter. This is what the Forward party is going to be engaging in... they ARE NOT going to be distinguished between Democrats AT ANY LEVEL.
His message is spot on, as is typical Yang. He's just got to work on actually winning more voters over. He's almost got too much substance and not enough style.
