:rolleyes: Okay, let’s all roll our eyes at once because we know it aint going to happen. But what if it did? How would a Libertarian President Harry Browne get any of his agenda through when he didn’t have any of his own party in congress? This same question applies to all 3rd party candidates. Wouldn’t their presidency just be a total waste?
I could imagine that Buchanan or Nader MIGHT get some things done because they are more like Republicans & Democrats respectively, but wouldn’t someone like Browne be totally powerless?
I personally don’t see how a US president would ever be elected without at least a substantial minority from the same party being elected to Congress.
The president would have to do like other presidents when Congress is dominated by the opposing party: wheel and deal. If Congress continually proposed bills that the president vetoed, eventually the congresspersons’ approval ratings would start dropping in the opinion polls and they would change their ways out of fear of not being re-elected.
Let’s use Harry Browne as an example. Assuming he is voted in to office on his own merits rather than due to a freakish string of deaths amongst all the other candidates, he would then presumedly appear before Congress and point out that his election is an clear mandate for the Libertarian party platform. A majority of Senators and Representatives, seeing this, would then enact this platform into law. If not, they would face being replaced by candidates who would in the next election.
Also, if people realized that they actually put (say) a Libertarian in office, they would be much more willing to elect Libertarian senators and reps two years later. Which would give him 2 to 6 years to be productive.
One could arguably look at Minnesota as a small scale case of this. The house is mostly Dems, the senate Repubs, and Jesse Ventura is… well, Jesse Ventura.
Any Minnesota folk want to share how much their legislature has been getting done?