# New 3rd party kicks off - Forward Party
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [July 28, 2022, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684 "2022-07-28T03:10:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/81 "2022-07-29T19:00:47Z")
By the way, flip that around for guns. Yeah, there might be a few people in the US who would like to go full Australia and remove all guns, but they’re few and far between; none of them are national elected officials. But how much of the NRA’s message is “THEY’RE TRYING TO TAKE AWAY YOUR GUNS!”
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### Author:  [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/82 "2022-07-29T19:00:47Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#):
>
> The [Wikipedia article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_Party) says they will endorse moderate Republicans and Democrats, rather than siphoning:
Their endorsements will be meaningless. If they run candidates, which normal political parties do, they’ll siphon votes from Democrats. Yang ran as a Democrat. Fuck them. We don’t need a “centrist” party, we have one. We need a viable conservative party to replace the GOP.
> [@Temporary\_Name](#):
>
> A balancing third party can FORCE them to have to compromise because they can no longer be just obstructionists.
A better way to stop obstructionism is to elect more Democrats. This party won’t win a thing and will help elect Republicans.
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> This kinds of both-sidesism really gets under my skin. Anyway, getting 20% of the electorate sprinkled throughout the country makes you a spoiler, but doesn’t get you any senate seats.
RIght. We don’t have a parliamentary system (and they won’t get anywhere near 20% of the vote). At best, they are a spoiler party. Which is great if they’re spoiling Republicans, but they won’t be.
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2022, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/83 "2022-07-30T00:12:52Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> Anyway, getting 20% of the electorate sprinkled throughout the country makes you a spoiler, but doesn’t get you any senate seats.
Yeah, we kinda already did this. Ross Perot got 20% of the popular vote in the 1992 Presidential election and got exactly zero electoral votes. He tried to build on the momentum by founding the Reform Party (which he wanted to call the “Independent Party” but it was taken) explicitly for those fed up with both the Republicans and Democrats. They eschewed taking a stand on divisive social issues, instead trying to build a “coalition of the middle” around issues like balancing the budget
And it was a shit show. Jesse Ventura managed to get elected Governor of Minnesota under their banner in 1998, but that was the high point. Perot himself dropped to just 8% of the vote in 1996. Afterward the party kept getting hijacked by whatever crank needed a soapbox – in one of the biggest cases of political whiplash in history, they nominated Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader in consecutive Presidential elections. In 2020 they ran someone named Rocky De La Fuente
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2022, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/84 "2022-07-30T10:15:54Z")
Trump joined the Reform Party when he briefly ran for president in 2000.
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2022, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/85 "2022-07-30T11:25:32Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#):
>
> Believe it or not, 80% of Americans want abortion legal with reasonable restrictions. We’re not anti-abortion; we’re not full-blown “Abortion must be legal at all times”. We may disagree with what constitutes “reasonable restrictions”, but we want the procedure legal when it is needed. THERE IS A MIDDLE GROUND ON THE ISSUE.
That may well be true, but it’s irrelevant. If the 30% of those 80 who vote Republican considered it a major concern, they would vote that way. Instead they vote for anti-choice Republicans because they care more about low taxes, limited if any action against global warming, no restrictions on gun ownership, and / or any number of other Republican positions.
It’s like if I say I’m a fan of the Albuquerque Isotopes minor league baseball team, but then limit my support to making that statement. Maybe I really am a fan of that team, but in my every day life I have bigger concerns. The fans of that team who show up to all the games, know the players, buy the merchandise, etc. would rightfully question if I was a real fan.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/86 "2022-07-31T22:03:40Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#):
>
> There’s only so much you can do with lies. When both sides are dishonest sleazebuckets, you can spin any candidate as a Chinese sell-out because it just as well may be true. Your only choice, as a voter, is to get _their_ Chinese sell-out or _our_ Chinese sell-out who will at least do what you want **some** of the time.
>
> But if the candidate is an actual, normal person who everyone trusts and who is just honest and reliable, you can try to sell them as one of the lizard people all you want but all that gets you is backlash, because you’re trying to turn people against someone that they actually know and trust.
No, I disagree. I think it’s clear that there are millions of people who will believe anything if their right wing bubble tells it to them. These are the people, after all, who believed Donald Trump would make a good President. That’s lizard people territory.
As for demonizing the opposition, I think the same right wing bubble has shown they can target anyone. Look at Joe Biden. He’s pretty much the blandest person in American politics. When the Onion wanted to satirize Biden, their running joke was that Biden was secretly exciting. But then the right wingers stepped in and convinced the flock that Biden is evil.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/87 "2022-07-31T23:08:19Z")
@Velocity, do you plan to return to the thread to answer questions about why you support this new party?
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2022, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/88 "2022-08-01T18:34:50Z")
I do get a John Anderson vibe from some of the Republicans who have signed up for this thing. (My '80 vote for Anderson is the only one I regret.)
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/89 "2022-08-01T18:38:57Z")
If having a Republican president will cause Democrats to work with him, and having a Democratic president will cause Republicans not to work with him, suddenly voting for a Republican president can be portrayed (in that context, at least) as a rational act.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/90 "2022-08-01T18:59:51Z")
It’s true, in a way. Democrats haven’t held the government hostage in the way the Republicans have, they’ve stepped up when there were national threats like pandemics and wars. They (sometimes, at least) put country over party.
The Republicans want to burn it all down when there’s a Democrat in the White House.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/91 "2022-08-02T02:59:32Z")
>
Since it’s not a person, I’d wish that the Forward Party die a hideous death - but really it already has.
BTW, I can find no names on the website. And a politician who cannot remember names is either lying or in dementia. Neither is a good sign in a party leader.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/92 "2022-08-02T12:12:54Z")
This seems like an effort by Republicans who hate Trump to give them some non-MAGA candidates to vote for, and to save face they’re acting like the Democratic party has just as much of a death-cult problem as the Republican party.
This seems like a way to siphon off Republican votes, not Democratic votes.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/93 "2022-08-02T12:26:55Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> This seems like a way to siphon off Republican votes, not Democratic votes.
Let’s assume that they aren’t siphoning the MAGA folks, since that’s basically a cult. Now you have the Republicans who can’t stomach the obvious racism, white supremacy, authoritarianism, and sedition. They might vote Democrat, because there’s nowhere else to go – this happened with lots of suburban whites in the last election, right? But, these folks are trying to give those Republicans an outlet, which would stop them from voting form the Dems.
I mean, we have otherwise Democratic voters in this thread hoping they succeed.
Obviously they won’t succeed – this is an ego trip by Wang, so there’s no real risk of that happening, but if they did, it seems like they would grab “centrist” Dems and non-treasonous Republicans, which might be enough to but the MAGAs over the top.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/94 "2022-08-02T12:56:07Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> Let’s assume that they aren’t siphoning the MAGA folks, since that’s basically a cult. Now you have the Republicans who can’t stomach the obvious racism, white supremacy, authoritarianism, and sedition. They might vote Democrat, because there’s nowhere else to go – this happened with lots of suburban whites in the last election, right? But, these folks are trying to give those Republicans an outlet, which would stop them from voting form the Dems.
Maybe. But I think there’s a shitload of Republicans who are like, “I don’t like Trump’s insane levels of corruption, but I sure like lower taxes for rich people and abortion bans.” They might be very attracted by this new party.
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/95 "2022-08-02T18:10:07Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Maybe. But I think there’s a shitload of Republicans who are like, “I don’t like Trump’s insane levels of corruption, but I sure like lower taxes for rich people and abortion bans.” They might be very attracted by this new party.
And I think that is the sweet spot for this new party. If Trump/Trumpism disappears then they have no purpose. As long as the crazies are considered viable candidates by the GOP, then this new party may have something.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/96 "2022-08-02T18:40:32Z")
Having been in and active for the Libertarian Party for decades, and a member of [COFOE](http://www.cofoe.org/home.html), I wish them luck – they will find it far harder to get candidates on the ballot than they dream possible.
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### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/97 "2022-08-02T22:09:21Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> I sure like lower taxes for rich people and abortion bans
Why would this demographic leave the party that has delivered for a fledgling centralist party that all but certainly can’t?
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/98 "2022-08-02T22:24:19Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> But I think there’s a shitload of Republicans who are like, “I don’t like Trump’s insane levels of corruption, but I sure like lower taxes for rich people and abortion bans.” They might be very attracted by this new party.
Why? Is Forward going to advocate for lower taxes and abortion bans? What’s their position going to be on anything?
This pudding has no theme.
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/99 "2022-08-02T22:26:04Z")
I doubt people will put that much thought into it. The whole point of Forward is to have a party people can vote for that has neither the (D) nor (R) label next to it. Other parties like Libertarian are too stale.
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### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-3rd-party-kicks-off-forward-party/968684/100 "2022-08-02T22:38:23Z")
Well, I certainly agree that nobody’s put much thought into it.
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