It's amazing what a difference four years makes.
That long ago, I believed as jacobtowne does, that a vote for a third party by someone who would have held their nose and voted republican would result in a win by the liberals.
After the last four year of GWB, I'm in rick_reno's camp.
What's the difference?
A politician's stance on gun rights has always been a litmus test for me. If they're pro 2nd Amendment, they're probably okay with me on other issues as well. I will grant you that Bush has done much better at preserving our 2A rights than Kerry would have but he has failed us in many other ways, and it isn't possible to ignore them anymore.
The only logical course of action for a true conservative at this point is to vote for a third party (specifically, Libertarian or Constitution). Both major parties must be shown unequivocally that there is a
large bloc of disaffected conservative voters who are so angry with the state of their government that THEY JUST DON'T CARE WHO WINS! Only if this happens will either party have any reason to change.
Why would the dems change if they get elected?
Because they'll know that this large conservative bloc of voters will eagerly move to the major party that embraces true conservative values of limited constitutional government, personal freedom and personal responsibility. If they don't change, the republicans will and they'll be assured of victory in the next election.
Aren't we at this point now?
No. Take a look at this chart:
Because the republicans are spending faster than any administration in the past 30 years, they obviously feel that they have that "true conservative" bloc sewn up. They need to be shown that they don't. If that means that a democrat gets elected president in '08, that's a tactical loss I'm willing to take for the greater victory my children will realize.
What's the down side?
Obviously, the four (or eight) years it takes to get true conservatives firmly in the third-party camp. A lot can happen in that time, but we need to have eyes for the long road. The short road we're on now will lead to the untimely collapse of our government under its own weight. We want to preserve our government and our American way of life by making the difficult decision now - rather than leaving our kids with a government they can't pay for and that can no longer function for them.
-Dave
WTF??? 
. It is either going to be a Democrat or Republican that gets elected-you know and I know it. Deny it all u want but it is a fact. Now that said, sometimes you are FORCED to make a decision that isn't good either way(Liver or Frog legs for me
).
Let's do a simple example for instance. If you had 2 candidates in a classroom of 50 and you didn't like either so you and 2 other students vote for a 3rd person. Now even though you didn't like either of the 2 major candidates---you REALLY didn't want 1 of them to win(Candidate A). So the vote goes: