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Responding to Project 2025

Hans Blaster

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If you really want to build up this party you keep talking about, start organizing it for local elections. Get together with other, likeminded individuals and put up candidates for city council, county board, state assembly, etc. If you start winning elections at the small level then work larger offices with in the state. There is more to politics than US President, Congress, and statewide office.
 
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AlexB23

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I should try. Already, I have told my Republican co-worker (who likes helping the environment) and who wants to vote for 3rd party, that Sonski would be a good idea, as he takes the best ideas from the Republicans, and the best ideas for the environment and combines them. Today, if I have time, I will tell her more about Sonski. My social skills kinda suck, so doing more would be difficult, but I will at least tell folks about this guy, and try to find American Solidarity party candidates in Wisconsin and in my city.
 
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Hans Blaster

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You're not getting it. The point is not to spread the gospel of Sonski and promote a school board member for President of the United States. The point is to go and join the party and build up to support local candidates so that non-members in your area will start voting for them in local elections.
 
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AlexB23

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Yeah, I am starting to like Kamala as she is much younger than Biden, but I could try to join the American Solidarity Party, or at least support it. Sadly, I do not use social media, and the ASP already had a signing a week ago in my city. If only I knew about this a week ago.
 
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JSRG

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This is the claim people make: "Don't go for large elections! Go for small ones first!" But I see no evidence that this would work. All it means is that no one hears of your party at all outside of a few people locally. Running for larger offices makes people way more aware of it. Generally speaking, the way people hear at all about a third party is through their presidential candidate. Indeed, how is one going to gather up those candidates for city council/county board without making them aware of the party, which is typically achieved only in running for larger offices?

The whole "start small and work up" also has the issue of not really having a coherent way to do it. Say you in a few isolated areas manage to get elected to city council or whatever. That doesn't create any kind of path to larger offices. It's telling to me that every single political party I can think of that managed to get anywhere in US politics (even if it wasn't very far) did so by aiming for the large offices and getting attention that way. What's the biggest third party in the US? The Libertarian Party, and they were fielding presidential candidates from the get-go. Both of the current major parties (Democratic and Republican) emerged on the national level, not this "start local and build up".

Maybe it's not possible under the current election rules for a third party to become a real force. But whatever small gains they have managed to make were all by doing the thing you claim they shouldn't be doing, and I'm not aware of any party (major or minor) that managed to achieve power in the way you're saying they should be trying. Do you have any examples I'm unaware of?
 
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I am sorry to disappoint, but Christian Forums is social media.
 
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Pommer

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So?
Write to National Headquarters and ask for materials to sign you up and send materials so that you can canvas your neighborhood and section of your town!
Grassroots is dirty, understand.
 
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AlexB23

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So?
Write to National Headquarters and ask for materials to sign you up and send materials so that you can canvas your neighborhood and section of your town!
Grassroots is dirty, understand.
Whew, that sounds like a lot of work, plus, I do not want to be tied to a political party in case corruption happens inside the party at a later date.
 
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Pommer

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Whew, that sounds like a lot of work, plus, I do not want to be tied to a political party in case corruption happens inside the party at a later date.
I have actually made vegan “sausage“, it begins with seitan and is nearly as good as pork sausage, but I know of no political party that is both “pure” and has a slate of eligible, electable candidates.
 
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BCP1928

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You could also run as an independent, like Bernie Saunders.
 
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Hans Blaster

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Except we don't do anything with these minor parties running a presidential candidate. Most of the time they are complete unknowns with nothing even close to the credentials of the major party candidates or name recognition. Occasionally they run someone with a bit of name recognition (Weld [ex-Mass gov], consumer advocate Nader) but mostly they are just nobodies and get treated with the seriousness they have earned (none).

The US Presidency is not a position that is conducive to 3rd party challenges. (None have ever succeeded, always one of the two dominant factions/parties won, except 1824 when the single party's multiple factions ran against each other in a 4-way contest.) A minor party isn't going to get elected to the presidency.
The whole "start small and work up" also has the issue of not really having a coherent way to do it. Say you in a few isolated areas manage to get elected to city council or whatever. That doesn't create any kind of path to larger offices.
Really?! You don't think the same voters who just voted for the X-party candidate to city council won't consider the same party for state legislature?
And after 50 years the only have a handful of the kinds of offices I listed above (same for Greens.
Both of the current major parties (Democratic and Republican) emerged on the national level, not this "start local and build up".
The Democratic Party was organized from the top and from the dominant Jacksonian faction. The opposition quickly organized themselves in to the Whig Party. As for the Republicans, they were largely organized locally from the remnants of the collapsing Whig Party. The 1840s had also be a time of splinter factions and parties that did actually have national impact (Anti-Masonic, American [No-Nothing], and Free Soil Parties; Martin Van Buren, who orgainzed the Democrats, actually ran again after his own presidency as candidate of the Free Soil Party in 1848.) The new organizations then coalesced into a national party.

Shorter point, those parties formed when there was a vacuum in national party alignment. That is not the case today.
We've only had a few major parties/factions in our history, so no I don't. Unless a major party falls apart none of these minor parties have any chance to replace them at the national level. This obsession with running a presidential candidate, seems to be nothing other than allowing a small group of people to feel good about themselves when they vote for president.
 
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AlexB23

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I have actually made vegan “sausage“, it begins with seitan and is nearly as good as pork sausage, but I know of no political party that is both “pure” and has a slate of eligible, electable candidates.
I should try that out, or find pre-made vegan sausage, as I already eat chicken brats more often nowadays instead of traditional bratwurst.

And yes, there is no perfect party with eligible, electable candidates, cos we live in an imperfect world. And the 3rd party that seems to have good values does not have any candidates that have a chance of winning.
 
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JSRG

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Which is more than any party that followed your suggestion on starting at the local level and working their way up ever did, as far as I am aware.


Sure. But it gives them a lot more attention than your suggestion would.

Really?! You don't think the same voters who just voted for the X-party candidate to city council won't consider the same party for state legislature?

No, not really. They're very different sorts of races. In fact, this issue is demonstrated by your next point:

And after 50 years the only have a handful of the kinds of offices I listed above (same for Greens.

Which they did in large part because they went for larger offices which got them attention and then people ran on the more local level.

In fact, if your proposed suggestion is to work, shouldn't the Greens be doing a lot better? They ran people for local office and won. In your words, shouldn't those same voters who just voted for them consider the same party for legislature? But it seems they don't.


Sure. But they still did it on the national level rather than the local one.

It is true that, under current electoral rules, it's hard to see a minor party gaining real power minus a major party falling apart (not to say it's impossible, just hard to see). But if that is the case, then what you suggest doesn't work either because it's just impossible period. You can't say that running people for higher offices can't work on the basis that a major party needs to fall apart for that to work, because that factor stops the idea you suggest also.

And maybe that is the case. Maybe there is no route to power for a third party under the current rules. But whether there is a route or not, the route you say they shouldn't be doing has paid at least some dividends (however small), whereas the route you say they should be doing has not been demonstrated to achieve even those small gains.
 
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JSRG

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You could also run as an independent, like Bernie Saunders.
Sanders is a Democrat in everything but name. In all of his Senate elections, including the first one, the Democratic Party endorsed him and didn't run anyone against him.

Angus King would be a better one to point to.
 
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CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN

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I concur and Americans are too complacent. They let a lot of things go and that doesn't bode well for future. You know how the saying goes. Give an inch and they'll take a mile. By the time we're fed up it will be too late.

~bella
Yes, I told my aunt about what's in it. She won't read it. But keep saying it's a good plan. If it gets rid of illegals, makes things cheaper. She doesn't to understand, this effects her grandchildren in a bad way. The news are blinding people. So,they ignore what's really happening.
 
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essentialsaltes

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Project 2025 director steps down amid backlash from Trump

Paul Dans has stepped down as director of Project 2025, the conservative playbook for a potential second Donald Trump term, amid intense criticism, including from the former president.

Dans’ departure was confirmed in a statement to CNN by Dr. Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, the group that launched Project 2025. Before joining Heritage to lead the project, Dans served as a top official in Trump’s White House.

At least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in the project, a CNN review found.
 
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Pommer

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Is having a pluritized “given” name as a surname required to sit on this committee?
 
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essentialsaltes

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Trump succinctly responds to Fox News hosts asking about Tim Walz linking Trump to Project 2025.

 
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