Guy Chamberlin
Well-known member
The last time a third party candidate won an electoral vote was in 1968, when American Independent Party Candidate George Wallace won five states, 46 Deep South electoral votes and 13.5% of the popular vote simply by declaring himself more white nationalist than Nixon or Humphrey. I think the Wallace folk in 1968 saw both Humphrey and Nixon as the same Yankee elitist desegregationists, and saw no risk in their vote. 50 years later, George Wallace could be more popular than ever. The GOP basically stole his playbook.
1968 was a disaster for everybody.
When Ross Perot got 20 million votes in 1992, a lot of people (including me) didn't see a significant difference or danger between George H.W. Bush and BIll Clinton, and considered Perot at the very least a wake-up call to the two party system. But Perot's Reform Party turned into a clown show, drawing camera-happy populists like Jesse Ventura and Donald Trump.
Having proven himself easily triggered and unhinged as President, Donald Trump now vows to make his second term a revenge tour, literally promising to remove the bulwarks of democracy that prevent him from operating a dictatorship. Sadly, if the best chance of beating Trump means a comatose Joe Biden issuing statements written by an AI ChatBot, it's the preferable choice.
1968 was a disaster for everybody.
When Ross Perot got 20 million votes in 1992, a lot of people (including me) didn't see a significant difference or danger between George H.W. Bush and BIll Clinton, and considered Perot at the very least a wake-up call to the two party system. But Perot's Reform Party turned into a clown show, drawing camera-happy populists like Jesse Ventura and Donald Trump.
Having proven himself easily triggered and unhinged as President, Donald Trump now vows to make his second term a revenge tour, literally promising to remove the bulwarks of democracy that prevent him from operating a dictatorship. Sadly, if the best chance of beating Trump means a comatose Joe Biden issuing statements written by an AI ChatBot, it's the preferable choice.