Should the Green Party run against the Democrats in the primary?

And similarly, should the Libertarians run against the GOP in the primary? There are lots of other third parties that could get more exposure in the primaries than in the big election as well.

I would like to see more third party candidates in the race, but the Nader/Perot issue comes up. Do I vote for the candidate I want or do I vote for the candidate with the best shot of winning over the other side? What if Nader had beat Al Gore in the primary, would he have been able to win in a Bush-Nader contest?

While my politics align more with a small government, technocratic, green party, and wish they would pull the same thing that the Tea Party did with the GOP. The Occupy movement went after the wrong people it looks like. If they really wanted to change things, they would have infiltrated the democratic party and campaigned against them in the primary. Where if the voter knows that even if the 'third-party' candidate doesn't win, they can still vote for someone in November with similar ideas and who is willing to listen to the good ideas from the third-party candidate. In places like California/Oregon, what would happen if the Green party candidate would go up against the GOP in Nov with no democrat on the ballot? Would Ron Paul have been able to run as a Libertarian and win the primary against the GOP and then get enough votes in Nov is a GOP candidate wasn't an option?



(yes, the 2nd one is 'fake', but it is a real Kickstarter project Electricity | The Life Story of NIKOLA TESLA by wil cashen — Kickstarter )

 

Then why didn't the Tea Party break off from the moderate GOP? I used to get the mailers they would send out to Republicans, and in the bottom of some would be the the Tea Party logo. It's not like 50% of Republicans in this area are Teabaggers (at least I hope not), but they were able to run in the GOP primary, and not split to vote in the main election.

I don't think it is all about charisma. At least I hope not. I bet if Obama switched to the Green Party tomorrow, but kept everything else the same, yet the Democrats had to find someone to run in the Presidential election, that Obama would lose bad. Just because some people would vote straight Democrat, and others would like the new Democratic candidate. Yet that little split in the vote between two left wing candidates would let the single right wing candidate win.

Nope, if the Green Party won in the Liberal primary, the Democratic party would have to figure out how to change to win. And that is pretty much what it should be a Liberal and a Conservative primary at this point. People aren't doing much research into switching from one party to another, but without a big push from within the party to change it doesn't happen.

I voted for the Green party in their primary this year, but I know those couple of thousand votes in the general election can be the difference between having a liberal or a conservative representing you.

 

absolutely not. i've been a huge fan of the third parties since i began voting. there is just no point in voting for a 3rd choice. i love their platforms, but they have no hope at all. the only hope is to infiltrate the current system. you can see this with rand paul/ron paul today. i've voted 3rd party for over 10 years and have realized there is no point.

the only way i can see is to infiltrate the current two party system and try to change it.

 

Shouldn't that be 'absolutely' instead of "absolutely not'"? I would say the Tea Party has infiltrated the GOP more in 2 years than the Libertarians have done in 20. But, it would be better if instead of Ron Paul being on his own within the GOP, if he would have a bunch of like minded people around the country that could help hone and provide details to the type of plans and platform that the Libertarian-Republicans have. I want the 3rd parties to be able to 'infiltrate' the big two during the primary season instead of having to have thousands of people worry about wasting their vote on a 3rd party candidate who won't win. It would be a fairer fight in the primary rather than in the general election.

And Rand Paul is totally different from Ron Paul.