Political Profiling

For many voters, it is likely the case that they realize there are third party and independent candidates running for office in their district only upon entering the voting booth. Restrictive ballot access laws force third party and independent campaigns to spend large amounts of time and money to ensure merely that they appear on the ballot, hence diverting precious resources from other forms of outreach and organization aimed at raising the level of public awareness of their campaigns and platforms. Virtually guaranteed to get onto the ballot in any given election, Republicans and Democrats, on the other hand, can count on name recognition of their respective party brands if not also of their respective candidates. The third party political profile can go some way toward addressing this disparity. I recently came across to noteworthy exemplars of the genre. At the Examiner, Scott Gibbs provides readers with a rundown and explication of the Green Party's 'Ten Key Values.' Part 1 of the series takes a look at the first five: grassroots democracy, social justice and equal opportunity, ecological wisdom, non-violence and decentralization. Meanwhile, Keith Lehman of the Lighthouse Patriot Journal has begun a detailed point-by-point analysis and critique of the Constitution Party's political platform. Lehman's hope is that the series:

starts the brain mechanism working on matters that concern the traditional two parties and their failure to stand by or create a political platform that corresponds to the Constitution of the United States, the reasoning of the Federalist Papers and the decisions and wisdom of those that founded our nation.