James, I disagree with your analysis of Ron Paul. It would be more correct to say that Paul would get 13% in a Republican primary, 13% in a Democrat primary, and 13% in an Independent primary, but – it would be the same 13%.
This year is a little different, and running as a third party he might get 10 to 15% and that vote would come about 2/3 from Rs and 1/3 from Ds. So he could throw the election to the Ds, but couldn’t come close to winning. He could only re-elect Obama. Some spoiler! But that isn’t going to happen. There is no chance Paul will run third party.
Paul is a patriot. He is great on domestic policy, and I agree to an extent with his foreign policy. He is an ideological candidate, not an office holder, and he is doing the Lord’s work. He seeks to bring the Republican Party to him and to bring his people to the Republican Party. That will be his legacy, and if he can bestow a Republican constituency to his son, all the better. His 1988 third party run was a youthful indiscretion during a different time. By that time, Ronald Reagan had led all the true libertarians/classical liberals into the Republican Party.
That is why Rollins and all the Republicans never have an ill thought expressed about Paul. The Republicans will need him in the general, and will fete him at the convention.
Your promotion of a third party is politically immature. The U.S. system has evolved to two parties for good reason. We have first-past-the-post, state-by-state, winner-take-all elections. The two parties each try to create a big enough tent to get to 51% in enough states to get 270 electoral votes. To do that, no winning party is going to be pure enough to satisfy everyone or anyone.
Marveling at the large independent block and thinking they are in the pocket of a third party is simply wrong. Independents are made up of idiosyncratic right-wingers, gonzo left-wingers, and clueless mush. You can’t appeal to them in toto. They only vote by default.
Your analysis of the bases of the two parties as rich and poor is crude. The base of the Ds are those that take from government – for the most part labor unions (particularly government), other government employees and academics, and those that rely on transfer payments (entitlements). The Ds are a coalition of resentful groups. The base of the Rs are those that contribute to government, and are generally classical liberals, conservatives and libertarians – essentially a limited government/strong national defense coalition. Rs are the ‘working man’. So the Ds are the ‘takers’ in society and the Rs are the ‘makers’. This is so obvious you should be shocked if you’re surprised.
The rich/poor class thing is just Marxism. For instance, most of Wall Street is Left because they are the weak-minded product of our finest Universities. Most of our ‘ethnics’ are left because the Ds successful preach oppression and class hatred to them. Most people are ‘Right’ because they know government exploits them.
P.S. Donald Trump struck a great blow for liberty yesterday when he endorsed Mitt Romney. This is a much bigger deal than people have let on. If the Donald had gone third party (maybe with Palin), the Republicans were toast. Kudos to Trump.
