Where's the Party? (It's at Your Local Insurgency Booth)

On Sep 15, 1:52*pm, vtcapo wrote:

Until a viable 3rd party is in place it will be politics as usual
where partisanship rules and nothing gets done. *This is why I will
vote Democratic. I'd rather see this party succeed or fail on their
own merits. This is their time, why interrupt it?

I think that Obama is doomed to be a one-term President. He got in
because the stock market crashed just before the election. That's like
McCain getting in because there was a repeat of 9/11.

I hope that Americans do reject Tea Party candidates, and choose
moderate Democrats instead of them wherever that is the choice. On the
other hand, I expect gains by moderate Republicans.

I wish there were a viable third party as well. But the kind of third
party I think most Americans would like is one that would be anathema
to the group of Americans most visibly seeking a third party at
present - libertarians.

I think what Americans want is a Populist party.

On the one hand, such a party would be hawkish on national defense.
And they would, I think, throw the social conservatives a few bones -
giving them a bit more than mainstream Republicans, but a lot less
than the Tea Party would.

On the other hand, while they wouldn't necessarily be in favor of
making welfare programs more generous, and even a health-care plan
less convoluted than the Obama and Clinton schemes might not be in the
cards... just like certain Democrats, but much more seriously (they
wouldn't just talk, they'd get things done, because this would be the
whole party, not just a wing of it)... they would be protectionists,
and they would get the rust belt moving again. You want to buy a new
car? Fine. Just pay what it costs to put Americans to work building
it.

Such a party would close the borders to illegal immigration, of
course. There are no jobs that "Americans won't do", just pay union
wages. (They might make one exception to make it easy for foreign
nannies to come to the U.S., though, while blocking almost every other
kind of immigration - since few _individuals_ can afford to pay union
wages for nannies. Businesses, on the other hand, just pass their
costs along to the consumer. And having a job but being poorer because
there's no cheap Chinese stuff on the shelves beats not having a job.)

Another thing this sensible party would do is shut down all fossil-
fuel powered electrical power capacity. Not that wind power or solar
power could replace it. Not that energy conservation could make it
redundant.

No; besides making cars in Detroit, America would be put back to work
building nuclear power plants all over the place. With reprocessing.
With breeder reactors. With the Thorium breeder.

And we would take Robert Zubrin's idea of having cars run on wood
alcohol if there are no good ways to make a reasonable battery for an
electric car at reasonable cost.

John Savard