I don't understand the third party talk

[Cary]

Let's assume that we have 81 million Democrats. And let's assume that 10% of Republicans don't like Donald Trump so this alleged third party has 7.4 million votes.

That leaves Republicans with a shrinking base of 66.6 million old white folks?

How does that make for that third party? How does that add up?

???

[PoliticAverse]

1. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. n/t

[Cary]

3. It's relevant to us

Do they actually draw votes from Republicans? If that's all they do then count me in.

Do they draw votes from us? Do they drain enthusiasm?

Since we got some disaffected Republicans, they do draw votes from us.

[SoCalDavidS]

2. It's A Dumb Theory IMO

The 2 Party system is too ingrained at this point. Attempts at a 3rd party have failed miserably every time. Now is no different.

Way too much money is involved, and any new party could not compete. And repubs like Liz Cheney aren't leaving the party. She'll take whatever the party dishes out, but won't abandon them.

[NotANeocon]

6. You're right - with two parties you always get mob rule.

With three or more parties you might get proportional representation and that's far too democratic for the USA.

[Cary]

8. How would you enjoy life if you made fascists the plurality?

[NotANeocon]

12. Aint that what happened in 2016 USA?

[Cary]

13. Pretty much

Had all of Stein's voters voted for Hillary Clinton she would have won. So you see the perils of multiple parties in a plurality system like ours.

It doesn't make for more choice. It enables a plurality.

[Frasier Balzov]

16. Sometimes you get a Bill Clinton though.

Courtesy of a Ross Perot.

[NotANeocon]

4. Every answer is binary -

at least in the religions the invaders crossed the seas to escape from.

With two parties decisions are easy. If there are more than two you have to think and weigh strengths and weaknesses.

The system works very well - like putting two shovels against a wall and asking two plowboys to take their pick.

[48656c6c6f20]

5. I don't give a rats ass if they so a third party.

But I am going to voice my 100 percent support they do it. Because this is one shit show I'm going to enjoy.

[getagrip_already]

7. it's only media hype.....

Really, who are they actually quoting? Concerned anonymous sources?

There will be no splinter of the gop. The old guard will simply be put on an iceflow and sent out to sea.

The party will morph under new leadership and continue as a monolith.

There will be concern, sadness, but no action. It's not who they are.

[LeftInTX]

9. Agree...won't happen

[JHB]

10. If they ever actually do it, not just blow hot air about it...

...the goal wouldn't be short-term direct wins, it would be to break their opposition within the GOP (the Trump cult) and reinstate themselves as the only effective leadership. Take back their party by torpedoing it, denying the Raving Monster Loony Party the success it needs to stay a going concern. Once there's no more advantage to cleaving to Trump, they'll be able to mop up and reorganize what's left.

They've done something like it before, in the opposite direction. It's how they drove the Rockefeller Republicans to political extinction in the 70s and 80s. They split votes to spoil election where an insufficiently-conservative Republican ran, teaching Republicans that the conservatives were the ones who would dig in and not go along to get along. So the Republicans played to the conservatives, and it was everyone else who had to go along to get along. For insufficiently-conservative Republicans who were personally too popular for that strategy to work, they simply isolated such persons (usually older to begin with) until they retired, and then replaced them with some one more conservatively-correct.

Whether that strategy would win out remains to be seen, as is whether they even make the attempt.

[H2O Man]

11. A party for Democrats.

Adds up to a real good time.

[FloridaBlues]

14. A few really want to make this a separate Republican Party. Heavy lift.

A few have stars in their eyes that a new center right Party will magically appear

[Cary]

15. Or a sufficient number of cult followers will magically recover

They don't want to understand that their problem is their base, and the former guy is a symptom. Nor do they want to acknowledge their own role in creating the pathology.

It's a clusterfuck.