Comments on: Huckabee Hypocrisy in NY-23 Race

By: kevintracy

kevintracy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:01:19 +0000

Abortion is not the only issue. If Huckabee is the only one who can represent the issue, then nothing will ever change and talking about it is a waste of time. I personally think there are going to be far better messengers in the future.

By: BSR

BSR — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:45:47 +0000

I’m disappointed that you’ve turned against Huckabee, Kevin. If you truly care about ending abortion as we know it, no single candidate has ever been more strong, more consistent, and more dependable on the subject than Mike Huckabee. If, on the other hand, you only care about advancing the Conservative Party, it is a bit unreasonable for you to have expected a prospective GOP presidential nominee to have helped legitimize and advance a rival party that – if it strengthens-can only bleed support from the GOP, never win outright, and ensure liberal domination – and millions upon millions of un-checked abortions – for generations to come.

Better to spend our energies bringing the conservative back to the GOP, than to split the baby (reference to King Solomon intended).

BSR

By: briand

briand — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:14:21 +0000

The irony is that had a conservative enough Republican ran, the New York Conservative Party could have simply endorsed him or her and they would have appeared once on the ballot as a Republican and once as a Conservative. All votes would have been counted as going to the candidate. Since the Republicans were not able to do this the Coservatives had no choice but to run their own candidate. This cross endorsement or “fusion candidate” system increases even more the influence that a third party can have on the major parties. Unfortunately most states do not allow this. My father was the vice chair of the Conservative Party in the county where we lived in New York State. We would beg and plead with the Republicans to listen to us. Sometimes they did, sometimes they did not. Sometimes we ran our own candidates, sometimes we even endorsed Democrats if they were Conservative enough. To us it was about the principals not the party label. It has caused me to feel that third party politics is in my blood.

By: kevintracy

kevintracy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:14:13 +0000

I disagree, the two largest recipients of votes in virtually all elections would be Democrats and Republicans. And because virtually all parties in this country are more right wing or more left wing, the runoff would ultimately defeat the importance of the 3rd party.

If anything, the current system requires coalition building that should be taking place in the primary process. If you fail to please all parties in a coalition, you run the risk of a 3rd party candidate running against you and splitting the vote.

Like I said earlier, it is a lot easier to defeat an incumbent liberal Democrat than a liberal Republican and 3rd Party candidates help us police ourselves and keep us honest so we don’t elect those liberal Republicans.

By: daltonsbriefs

daltonsbriefs — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:29:01 +0000

Third parties would have more influence if states would mandate run-off votes when none of the candidates gets more than 50%. This would let multiple candidates run, and then a European style coalition building process for the runoff election a month later.

By: kevintracy

kevintracy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:50:55 +0000

I believe 3rd Parties have the ability to reform the 2 major parties. For example, if the Republicans are nominating liberals, 3rd party conservatives like Hoffman are a great way to keep the parties honest to their values.

I’ve always looked at it like this: It’s a LOT easier for conservatives to beat a moderate Democrat than a liberal Republican. If we split the vote with a conservative candidate and a liberal Republican candidate and a democrat wins, the GOP will have the opportunity to field a conservative in the next election.

By: briand

briand — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:34:16 +0000

Here we go again Jarod, “third parties split the vote”. As if Republicans are entitled to being one of only two choices. How long have we been hearing this crap about reforming the Republican party only to be disapointed year after year because they are bought and paid for and rotten to the core. Is there any point in supporting them when they give us McCain and Bush? Let me suggest some alternatives. Allow cross party endorsements like they do in New York State and a few others. Encourage ballot access and proportional representation for third parties, instead of trying to cowardly circumvent democracy, and then form governing coalitions of multiple parties like they do in Europe. If you are really interested in people engaging in the system and being heard. Or you can just use tricks to keep power and silence the people you disagree with. Which sounds more like facism than democracy.

By: Travis Gearhart

Travis Gearhart — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:05:09 +0000

What I think is the more important part about this is the fact that prominent Republicans (regardless of each individuals feelings on each “prominent” Republican) seem to be moving back to the conservative side of things, and that’s great! Building onto what Jarrod said, perhaps that move (to not endorse the Convservative Party candidate until the Republican dropped out) shows that Huck’s a bit more serious about running his Presidential campaign and gaining the trust of the establishment? I agree with Jarrod on his points, too. Third party’s screw stuff up worse than if a bad or so so Republican were to win.

By: Jarrod

Jarrod — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:20:30 +0000

“Although it is very apparent that Huckabee wasn’t needed, his absence wasn’t unnoticed.”

This statement is the kicker in all this criticism of Huckabee. His opinion doesn’t matter, he’s not conservative enough on economic issues, and so on and so forth, yet people all over the conservative movement go into apoplexy over the fact that he didn’t officially endorse Hoffman.

I understand why he didn’t. He knows that third party candidates split the vote and is counterproductive in most cases. Rush Limbaugh has expressed concern over this same thing; encouraging people to reform the Republican party and not split the vote with a third party candidate. Huckabee and HuckPac has been working behind the scenes since The One’s election to support conservative Republican candidates all over the country. He was one of the first to endorse Rubio in FL.

In this case, he did not endorse the chosen establishment candidate like Newt did and he praised Hoffman’s conservatism. He is able to formally support Hoffman now because the Republican candidate dropped out, which makes it a race, absent a Republican candidate, between a conservative and a liberal. Makes perfect sense to me.