2024 Third Party and Independent Candidate General discussion

[AltWorlder]

It’s just Lieberman already looked old back in 2000

[AltWorlder]

Let’s play a game. Which mainstream figure and/or actually elected politician would be the best fit for the third party nomination? Balancing between 1) would they actually want it and 2) ideological compatibility.

Libertarian Party: Justin Amash, easy. Joe Exotic for the joke pick, but he’s spoken for already (doomed Democrat run). Beyond that there are a ton of libertarian celebs to consider.

Constitution Party: are there any a) prominent b) paleocon or MAGA c) people who have rejected Trump? Steve Bannon, but then again I’m not sure if he even fits any of the three? Though at this point it could be any ostracized conservative - Don Blankenship was an entryist.

American Solidarity Party: John Bel Edwards would actually work quite well since he’s term-limited out, and his recent anti-capital punishment stance falls into the Whole Life ethic. For a non-politician figure, how about Elizabeth Bruenig. Realistically, the best they could hope for is maybe a Catholic professor like Robert P. George.

People’s Party: Jimmy Dore, natch

Forward Party: Rocky de la Fuente, because he’s gotta bring his shtick somewhere.

[AltWorlder]

They’re only truly conservative on life and family issues, so not a huge surprise

[AltWorlder]

Hawkins is like Jermey Corbyn, well-meaning and put his time at the coal face but too old and doddering-seeming to put up a solid defense when attacked.

[AltWorlder]

Truman faced a left split from Henry Wallace and a right split from Strom Thurmond, worked out for him I guess

[AltWorlder]

Dang now only Dario Hunter can stop the entryist

[AltWorlder]

On leftish semi-household names:

What are the chances that RFK Jr. and/or Marianne Williamson might run third party?

Williamson unlikely, she didn't in 2020 and her lane seems to have been completely dominated by the others-

RFK Jr. would have had a strong chance if not for Cornel West's entrance. He might still do so though. How ironic and ignominious it'd be if he ended up being the People's Party candidate.

Wonder who the People's Party would do otherwise. Guess this isn't Jimmy Dore's year, wondering if he'll ever run.

Ditto for Tulsi Gabbard.

Editorial: why is it that so many of these prominent disaffected progressive-left (dissident left?) figures seem so outlandish and outright compromised compared to past candidates like Ralph Nader? By that I mean holding fringe conspiracy theory beliefs such as anti-vaxx, weirdly conservative positions (such as West praising DeSantis' education policies), and the usual ties to Russia stuff.

Bernie Sanders, Howie Hawkins, and Gloria La Riva seem so much more straightforwardly left-of-mainstream in comparison. Did Jill Stein kick off this trend? Or Cynthia McKinney? Roseanne Barr?

[AltWorlder]

RFK Jr and Cornel West have no transferable voters, as Jr represents the remaining conservadems left and Cornel attracts left wing and an incalculable amount of disaffected black voters. They are diametrically opposed outside of wanting aid to Ukraine to stop, as even with that they have different plans for it.

Imagine the fringe votes they will pull from a fringe unity ticket

[AltWorlder]

Yeah check out this thread

https://Twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1702150305708712242
https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1702150338709492038

Conclusion:
https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1702157235386749408

[AltWorlder]

also bc shes running as a dem this is the wrong thread for this anyway

Eh I think it’s not so bad to have obscure long shots here. Though sometimes it’s a fine line. Should Joe Exotic be here or have his own thread as a Democratic candidate? Trick question, like Kanye West he doesn’t seem to be doing anything, squandering the memeability of his candidacy.

[AltWorlder]

The important question is does he drop out of the Dem primary when he does that?

Anyway I expect Marianne Williamson's campaign is basically broke (it had just a couple hundred k at the end of last quarter and we'll be finding out soon) and she will probably drop out in the next few months. Quite possible Biden will be the only Dem name on the ballot in most states.

Joe Exotic has proven to be a pretty disappointing meme primary candidate. Most underperforming meme since Kanye.

"You know, I voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020 and was gonna vote for them again in 2024, but I really like what RFK Jr's been saying about the evils of vaccines, about how Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates deliberately prolonged COVID, about how the COVID virus is a Jewish-Chinese COVID bioweapon, and about how gender dysphoria is a consequence of a contaminated water supply."

- a non-negligible number of Democrats by November 2024

Most voters are low-information and don't pay attention to all of these news and probably thinks he's legit because he has a Kennedy in the name. Just like many Trump voters probably assumed he's a good guy because he's on TV and hosted The Apprentice, now how can you accuse someone who's famous of being a racist, you're just being crazy and overreacting

[AltWorlder]

The names for these antiwar rallies are getting more verbose and self-parodic

[AltWorlder]

lol does this mean RFK Jr. will seek to do an entryism on the Greens now

[AltWorlder]

He should really have more than 14%.

How did Ross Perot end up with so many votes? In some of the early polls in the 1992 cycle, Perot was actually winning, even though most people didn't even know who he was yet.

Have to assume ballot access laws weren’t as nearly stringent as they are now. He was actually able to make it to the debate stage with the big boys! Such success is inconceivable for a modern day independent or third party candidate!

[AltWorlder]

Richard Winger of Ballot Access News says in the comments that West is afraid of the FEC

Cornel West switched from Green to independent because he mistakenly believes that the Federal Election Commission might charge him with violating campaign finance laws if he continues as a Green. His campaign has been raising money to pay for Green Party petition drives. There is no basis for his fear; the FEC has never said a presidential candidate can’t pay for paid circulators for party petition drives.

https://ballot-access.org/2023/10/05/cornel-west-to-run-for-president-as-an-independent-unaffiliated-with-any-political-party/

[AltWorlder]

I mean even Nader has given up on the Greens, so

[AltWorlder]

You guys are seriously crazy if you really think RFK running independently hurts Trump more than it hurts Biden. Trump has got the conspiratorial loon vote absolutely sewn up.

I mean, Trump believes in vaccines sooo

RFK Jr. stands to peel away some of that crowd if he directly attacks Trump for being behind the COVID vaccine. It would be a further level of deranged radicalization in American politics, but it's a possible lane of attack.

It's been a few years now but the lockdowns, masking, and vaccines really ticked off a lot of that conspiratorial crowd. It was a more active intervention in their lives than woke news stories.

[AltWorlder]

The Reform Party is back baby

https://reformparty.org/our-solutions/

[AltWorlder]

Reform still has some ballot access, would be interesting if they can stage a comeback and outlive the No Label, Forward, and Alliance johnny-come-lately moderate centrist parties.

[AltWorlder]

Cenk Uyghur will somehow get more votes thank RFK Jr. and Cornel West combined

[AltWorlder]

Constitution Party seeking provisional nominations for a presidential candidate "and five or more would-be Cabinet members or Executive Appointees"

https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2023/10/constitution-party-seeks-provisional-candidates/

Always amused to hear that they're still around, especially it feels like 1) Don Trump stole their paleocon shtick and 2) Don Blankenship stole their party for the last election

[AltWorlder]

Ye gives up

Goes to show that meme candidates need a baseline of organizational and personal stability to get off the ground. Also see Joe Exotic's nonexistent Democratic primary campaign, and John McAfee's candidacy for the Libertarian nomination.

[AltWorlder]

Vermin Supreme is probably equivalent to Lord Buckethead, except he's an actual individual and not a character whose mantle is passed from person to person- he's a professional meme candidate, not some jumped-up celeb trying to coast on name recognition alone

[AltWorlder]

Wonder if Perot’s runs was the high water mark; the duopoly will never let a third party independent on the debate stage again

[AltWorlder]

Would the Libertarians of 2023 take it? Cuban is just a "fiscal conservative, social liberal" whereas the Libertarian Party has been taken over by Mises sickos.

The optimal time for that Libertarian run would have been in 2004 or so (Ron Paul rEVOLution was in '08) and paired Cuban up with either John Stossel or Drew Carey for maximal celebrity name recognition.