I was halfway joking about going with a Third Party candidate come the general election, so I decided to take a look at some of my options.

As of December 2007 the California Secretary of State lists the following political parties as ‘qualified’ for places on the ballot: American Independent; Democratic; Green; Libertarian; Peace & Freedom; Republican. There are a few ‘non-qualified’ parties trying to get enough signatures to earn a spot but I am not going to concern myself with those until later this year if I am still looking.

I’m sure I don’t have to talk about the Dems and GOP; those folks get plenty of airtime and space in the print media. I also think that folks reading this are familiar enough with the Libertarian Party positions on government non-interference and personal liberty. You do have folks both on the Left & Right who call themselves ‘libertarian’ but they seem to agree on certain fundamental issues. I’ll be honest and admit that I’ve voted Libertarian before, back in New York, where it was more a protest vote against an incumbent when there wasn’t an alternative. I think I have too much of that one time ‘socialist’ remaining in me to totally accept the Libertarian Party idea of little or no government in certain areas of society.

A lot of us were probably hoping that the Green Party would have made more of an impact on the national scene than it has. I think part of this has to with Ralph Nader, which I actually feel badly about saying. I have a lot of respect for Nader and always have, but I think that he has become more of a block to Green goals politically than he has helped them. Frankly, when you mention the Green Party folks immediately think of Nader and not always in a positive way. If you go to the Green website you’ll find that Ralph is once again named as a possible candidate for the Presidential spot. If someone else besides him gets their endorsement, I might very well vote for the Green candidate this November.

The Peace & Freedom Party seems less a party then an assortment of groups on the far left of the progressive movement. You’ll find Nader being considered there and at least one other person also seeking the Green Party spot. I probably have more in common philosophically with these folks and the Greens, than I do with the Democratic Party as it is now situated. It seems that I’m not one of the folks the DLC really wants hanging around anymore. At this rate, I’ll soon be sharing attic space with the Rockefeller-wing of the GOP.

If you want to see where the American Terribly Silly Party is located, you might want to check out the American Independent Party website. I’m sure that there are slander laws even for bloggers, so I’m going to refrain from making any comments about the folks seeking the Presidential spot. “Mad” Max Reiske is one of those, and he dubbed himself that so don’t look at me that way!

So okay, maybe this whole Third Party thing isn’t going to work out after all.