It's an interesting concept. We'll see how far they get.

I am registered with them and thought at first they might be onto something but to be honest they come across as Progressives in Independent clothing. We shall see though. The thought of the President and Vice President being of opposite parties is interesting but during the whole profile stage the questions were all geared ultra liberal beliefs.

Who they chose to run will tell as long as we have time to do some research and due diligence. Definitely need to be cautious. The process for choosing the candidates beats the 18th century way we do it now though. Timing sure is ripe.

Trump for prez. uhh, wait.

Yeah from what I've read I thought this is the organization Trump was going to opt for.

If so, forget it.

the questions were all geared ultra liberal beliefs.

#2 | Posted by Tedly

I haven't seen the questions... yet, but to someone who may be hard conservative I can imagine that even centrist positions might seem ultra liberal.

From the description in the article they seem to be looking for candidates that are willing to strive for realistic solutions. This constant cons vs libs is nothing but part of the problem.

yet, but to someone who may be hard conservative...

If I was hard conservative I would be registered with them. I'm a bit right of center nothing more. I just don't believe it's up the the Federal government to spend more than they make. They should have a budget with clear caps and voter approval to increase taxes or raise the ceiling. 15 trillion just isn't right.

would = wouldn't

This constant cons vs libs is nothing but part of the problem.

If this Americans Elect starts catching on it will be interesting to see how many politicians start changing parties. It will certainly put a damper on the far edges of the Right and Left if done correctly. Choosing the 2 that will run the country from the internet seem much more attractive than from the list the parties want you to choose from.

"during the whole profile stage the questions were all geared ultra liberal beliefs"

I don't agree with this at all. If you look at the answers, you might see that the respondents are skewing somewhat that way, but the questions were about topics of importance to all, and the responses included "hard conservative" sentiments as well as "ultra liberal." (I'd actually say they just represented a variety, but I'm using language in use on this thread.)

In fact, some of the responses skewed away from what are believed to be liberal responses. Example: the majority responded that teachers unions are "a hindrance" to public education. Hardly an "ultra liberal" or "progressive" response.

For the record, I have answered 50 questions so far. They're pretty good, though some don't leave any gray area.

I urge everyone on this site, especially those who claim to be independent or in favor of third-party rise, to go and check out americanselect.org for yourselves.

Until there is a strong third party presence in Congress, a third party President would be a Lame Duck from day one. The two parties will conspire to destroy him so as to ensure their dominance.

Lay the foundation for a 2016 third party President by voting only third party candidates for Congress in 2012!

I don't buy it:

"during the whole profile stage the questions were all geared ultra liberal beliefs"

Again I didn't convey what I was trying to say. I didn't mean the questions themselves. They are definitely on topics of importance. The choices for the answers seemed, to me , to be geared to the left. Maybe it's just me but I don't really like these kinds of question/answer scenarios. May I don't fit the pre-written answer model. I would rather the answers written out in the members own words. I realize that would be cumbersome and time consuming but it's just the way my simple mind works.

12--I like your point. But again, I didn't read any of those answers as leaning one way or another. It seems a pretty classic dichotomy construction, with some Likert-survey-type stuff (strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree). I didn't feel any of them limited the respondent to going strongly ideologically in one direction or the other.

You should know that the board of directors of this America Elect group reserves the right to overrule a majority vote to determine who the nominee will be. They also will not reveal who is financially backing the group. Some rumor that this is Bloomberg's vehicle to run as a third party moderate candidate.

We had more than one presidential candidate on the ballot in 2010, so more candidates is not the answer.
Monopolise are illegal in the private sector for a good reason. The Federal Government is just a monopoly, all these attempts to try to make a monopoly work better, are a waste of time.

The states should do the governing that way you have competition, and the bad gets minimized or eliminated.

"Monopolise are illegal in the private sector for a good reason. "

Hahahaha. When's the last time a monopoly was broken up by the government?

Hahahaha. When's the last time a monopoly was broken up by the government?

I don't know the last time since they aren't all as visible, but Reagan broke up a biggie when he was president. And you are reaping the benefits

After going through the first 50 questions I don't think that the process has a particular ideological skew. By what the site says are the most popular answers, it does seem that a disproportionate number of those who lean liberal are participating.

At this point, I still think the process is worth pursuing. It will work much better if they can find a way to attract a reasonable cross section.

"At this point, I still think the process is worth pursuing. It will work much better if they can find a way to attract a reasonable cross section."

Where are they advertising? Is it their fault, or are conservatives for some reason leery of such an outfit? Again, I challenge every person here who says stuff about the two parties being the same or the two parties being a duopoly that must be broken or the two parties being corrupt... to go to Americanselect.org and check it out.

I challenge every person here who says stuff about the two parties being the same or the two parties being a duopoly that must be broken or the two parties being corrupt... to go to Americanselect.org and check it out.

#19 | Posted by pragmatist

I agree, everyone should participate. Americans Elect is simply a process for providing another choice on the ballot. Nobody is being forced to chose the AE candidates once they are in place.

AE may only succeed in splitting the vote and giving a worse candidate the office. But, I think any process that might direct the discussion towards pragmatic solutions is worth pursuing.

20--Well-done, sir.

Having a strong 3rd party will not fix the problems associated with a monopoly.

Don't get me wrong I'm not against having a 3rd party, it just won't make things better.

Monopolies represent themselves not the people outside the monopoly.