Even though I hate politics, I thought you might be interested in learning about the third-party candidates running for U.S. president. You’ll find five of them listed below. (Thanks to Melissa for this idea.)
The figures in parentheses are the percentage of the popular vote each party will get according to this August 7-10, 2008, poll. My cynical summary of the political stances of the candidates, which uses the Political Compass scheme, follows the poll numbers. (For comparison, Obama comes out as mildly right wing and mildly authoritarian, while McCain is right wing and authoritarian.)
- Chuck Baldwin and Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party (0.0%) Right wing and authoritarian.
- Bob Barr and Wayne Root of the Libertarian Party (1.2%) Right wing, and mildly authoritarian.
- Alan Keyes and [unknown running mate] of America’s Independent Party are on the ballot in three states. (0.7%) Right wing and authoritarian. (Makes C’thulhu and Shoggoth of the Elder God Party look liberal.)
- Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente of the Green Party are on the ballot in 32 states. (0.2%) Moderately left wing, mildly libertarian.
- Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez of the Independent Party are on the ballot in 45 states. (1.6%) Moderately left wing, mildly libertarian.
As you’d expect in American presidential politics, there are no far left candidates, and no extremely libertarian candidates; — rather, the candidates cluster towards right wing and authoritarian. In other words, if you are truly leftist or truly libertarian, you don’t even have a third party candidate you can voter for.
I’m thrilled to read someone who acknowledges the issue of authoritarianism in American politics. Politicians, the ‘mainstream’ press, even most bloggers don’t explore that area.
Here’s an online ‘test’ that scores your political philosophy not just “left/right”, but also in terms for how much authority government should have….
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
Well there are an assortment of socialist parties that will have ballot access in some states. One that comes to mine is Brian Moore of the Socialist Party USA whose going to be on the ballot on at least a dozen states. Though my vote is for Obama. But there are choices.