Political Question For Catholics.

[Basilisa Marie]

[quote name='sixpence' timestamp='1349461820' post='2490391']
i have been looking for online resources summarizing the stances of the minor candidates.. anyone know anything good?
[/quote]

[url="http://votesmart.org/voteeasy/?utm_campaign=voteeasy&utm_source=votesmart&utm_medium=homepagead"]http://votesmart.org/voteeasy/?utm_campaign=voteeasy&utm_source=votesmart&utm_medium=homepagead[/url]

Virgil Goode is looking goode.

[Aloysius]

yeah I have some issues with Virgil but he's probably the best choice of the most viable third parties. sadly the GOP goons got him knocked off the ballot in PA; I almost signed the petition for him but I didn't since I knew the GOP was pouring over them with a fine-tooth comb and I could've been potentially kicked off my local GOP committee, my delegate status was likely not too threatened but you never know what kind of idiocy they'll go for so I was wary to protect that too; besides, the petitioner I met said they had a huge buffer of extra signatures already. They had to throw out a heck of a lot of signatures to get him off, must've been a lot of work for the GOP party hacks (I actually know two of the weasels that were involved at a high level as they didn't go to Tampa on time to be on the rules committee so they could do it, prompting an illicit vote for new members of the rules committee).

people need to start paying attention to early points in the process like signing petitions for ballot access; it's all well and good to go into November complaining about your choices, but you can do something in July and August and such (depending on your state) to work to get more choices on the ballots in November if you don't like any of the two major party's nominees at that point. Of course, petitioning machines that become too viable during that period face a whole lot of violent intimidation as the Ralph Nader and Ross Perot type folks found out once upon a time, so it can be tricky business trying to help out when the third party becomes too viable, but this time around Gary Johnson and Virgil Goode and Jill Stein were no where near the radar to inspire thuggish activity, though they got bombarded with legal fees with the ballot challenges.

It really is too bad Virgil's not on more ballots. He's got 25 or 26 I think, and since PA counts write-ins I can still consider him (refer to the map I posted earlier, Virgil Goode can be written in on any of the states that either allow write-ins or are listed as sore-loser-law states). I recommend a vote for Virgil Goode if he's on your ballot, and a write-in for either Virgil Goode or Ron Paul if Virgil's not on your ballot and you're in a state where it's legit to write-in. I really wish I could get behind Gary Johnson since he's on the ballot in so many states, but he is one of those pro-choice libertarians AND he has idiotically taken a [i]federal[/i] pro-same-sex marriage position, making him actually WORSE than Obama on same sex marriage as even Obama would leave it to the states. I say that's [i]idiotic[/i] because he could very easily take the sensible libertarian view (he is in the libertarian party) of removing government from the marriage business and having government simply enforce contract law but he's totally alienated the conservative libertarians with the view he took. it's terrible. like I said I really [i]wish[/i] I could support him because he's the most viable 3rd party and largely a decent candidate... I'll even say something about his pro-choice position, here he IS of the mindset that it should be left to the states, so he's not totally disqualified from consideration for a federal position when juxtaposed against the likes of Romney and Obama since leaving abortion to the states is something that could seriously begin a process towards getting it more widely outlawed and thus would mitigate the evil of abortion (though I would NOT vote for him as a governor of a state because he would be in favor of keeping it legal at a state level).

Ultimately, I can't support him or tell others to support him, but I won't begrudge a Catholic who does support him as a lesser of 3 evils (as I've said before, one is perfectly free to choose a lesser of two evils approach though I don't recommend it, I would recommend a lesser of 3 evils approach slightly more on the basis that your vote is effectively a protest vote so it takes on a completely different dynamic, but I still wouldn't recommend it either.... Virgil Goode is the best of the major 3rd parties)

[Winchester]

[quote name='sixpence' timestamp='1349461820' post='2490391']
i have been looking for online resources summarizing the stances of the minor candidates.. anyone know anything good?
[/quote]
Minors can't be candidates.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Winchester' timestamp='1349475549' post='2490471']
Minors can't be candidates.
[/quote]
I think she meant the candidate for the Miner Party.


[img]http://www.conservationmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/coal-miner.jpg[/img]