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Ralph Nader Moderates One Last 3rd-Party Debate for 2012

Late Tuesday, both the 2012 U.S. election (the popular vote at least) and the 2012 campaign season should be over. Tonight, though, whatever your ability or plans to vote are (see the current poll for a peek at what other readers claim about their intentions), you've got the chance to see one more presidential debate, to be moderated by Ralph Nader, and featuring third-party presidential contenders Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Virgil Goode (Constitution) and Rock Anderson (Justice). Yes, the same ones featured in another debate a few weeks back. (We promise, this is the last debate of this go-round.) If you're voting (or would, if you could) for other than the Democratic or Republican parties' candidates this year, what drives that decision?

11 of 409 comments (clear)

  1. Easy answer by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you're voting (or would, if you could) for other than the Democratic or Republican parties' candidates this year, what drives that decision?

    Easy: Romney wants to control your bedroom (marriage, abortion, etc), and Obama wants to control your bank account. Not to mention in the debates they both have either lied out of their asses or refused to provide real answers/details to any policy question.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  2. for some things, less is not more! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I am Greek - in my country (birthplace of Democracy... but you know that!), and in our last elections few months ago, we had about 35 parties to choose from, and from them there are 7 in the parliament (there is a 3% minimum of total votes requirement for geting there), and from those 7 parties 3 of them are forming the goverment... and still, for many citizens there is not a party that fully represents them.
    I believe that you have a much better Democracy in the USA than ours, but thats because you are better quality citizens - you should really check this multiple parties thing... it will make your Democracy even more better.

  3. Bollocks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Obama wants the top tax bracket to go up 3%. That's it. It was higher under Reagan.

    1. Re:Bollocks by lexman098 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I can't afford health insurance right now, and would rather do without as I don't feel it is right for everyone else to subsidize it and pay for it for me. What makes it worse is that I am penalized for not even being able to afford the insurance.

      This pretty much sums up the misinformation surrounding obamacare. Let me guess, you're too poor to afford insurance without your employer helping out, but still not poor enough to qualify for medicaid. The affordable care act was built with you in mind, my friend. It's actually less efficient for everyone else to let people like you go without insurance, so the affordable care act is going to (hopefully) make it cheaper for you to buy insurance from the exchange or at least require your employer to help out. You won't be "fined for being poor" unless you're ignorant ideology prevents you from taking advantage.

    2. Re:Bollocks by nedwidek · · Score: 4, Informative

      No company, huh? Provably wrong. Lowe's Home Improvement does for one.

      http://careers.lowes.com/benefits_part.aspx

      --
      Post anonymously - For when your opinion embarrasses even you!
  4. Re:A Wasted Vote... by gman003 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe not this election, but if candidates see that X% of voters want $IdeologyOfThirdParty, they'll start pushing that way more, because that few percent could be what wins them the election. So it still has influence, just more long-term.

    (There's also that federal funding given to any presidential campaign whose party earned over 5% of the vote in the last election. So once a party reaches that threshold, it could jump up rather quickly.)

  5. Re:A Wasted Vote... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    For the nth fucking time, Gary Johnson was a Republican when he was governor. He became the Libertarian Party candidate because he lost the Republican presidential primary.

  6. In case anyone missed it... by cffrost · · Score: 4, Informative

    In case anyone missed the 4-way debate moderated by Larry King in Chicago on 2012-10-23:

    https://kat.ph/torrents/20121023-full-third-party-presidential-debate-yt-avi-t6769764/

    All of the presidential candidates' social/economic ideologies are graphed here. [Note the proximity of the two corporate parties' candidates.]

    Please—especially if you live in an uncontested state—vote for the best candidate, not the second-least-worst candidate; our country (and especially our civil liberties) have taken just about all the "lesser evil" that can be withstood.

    This quiz can help you determine which candidate best matches your own ideology.

    --
    Thank you, Edward Snowden.

    "Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
  7. Re:A Wasted Vote... by Culture20 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I found reams of the same information via Google too.

  8. Re:A Wasted Vote... by Vaphell · · Score: 4, Informative

    I like Obama for ending the war in Iraq

    you mean for sticking to Dubya's plan because he was forced to, mostly because Iraq simply refused when they were offered to extend the deal? They even dared to demand they could prosecute troops committing crimes, which are immune to the local law enforcement.
    And there is that huge so called embassy for 5500 people, full of mercenaries. That pulling out is in name only.

  9. Re:A Wasted Vote... by anagama · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm told at work that I'm "wasting" my vote by not selecting candidate XXX, but to me, a wasted vote is a vote for something I don't agree with. I like Obama for ending the war in Iraq,

    Kudos for voting third party. Me too.

    However, I feel obliged to correct a misconception about Obama. He did not "end the war in Iraq" --- he merely failed to extend it. In the months leading up to the expiration of SOFA, scheduled for Dec 2011, the Obama administration lobbied Iraq for an extension in order to keeps thousands, maybe up to 20,000 troops in Iraq. SOFA was a prerequisite for that because it forbids Iraq from prosecuting soldiers in Iraq, for crimes committed while they are in Iraq. Had Obama been successful at extending SOFA, Obama would not now be claiming to have "ended the war in Iraq" because it would still be going on. I mean, it still is, just with mercenaries and such, but it is perhaps a worthy semantic distinction. I just hate to see people give credit to Obama though, when all he did was "fail to extend," which is totally different from "intending to end."

    Citations: http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/10/23/obamas-revisionist-history-on-ending-the-iraq-war-a-lesson-from-the-3rd-presidential-debate/

    and this from within the above:
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704889404576277240145258616.html

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    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good