Disgruntled former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson says he is considering leaving the Republican slate and running as a third-party candidate in the 2012 presidential election.
“I feel abandoned by the Republican Party,” Johnson, who has been left out of most of the Republican debates, told the Sante Fe New Mexican newspaper this week, saying he might seek the Libertarian Party’s support.
3 thoughts on “Gary Johnson to consider third party run in 2012”
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Let’s not call it a “third party,” though. It’ a new party, not constructed in opposition to the existing two parties, but apart from them.
Sorry Phil, but I fail to discern the distinction…if it is not the Republican party, nor the Democratic party, it is a third party. I have never heard that in order to be a third party you must be a party in opposition to one or the other major parties.
It’s an important semantic distinction. If you call it a “third party” you presume the existence and semantic superiority of the other two parties (presumably numbers one and two with your new party bringing up the rear at number three).
But if you call it a “new party” then that’s what it is, a new party! It exists on its own, apart from defining it in the context of the other two.
Words have meanings, best to use them carefully. 🙂