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January 2023 Open Thread

By Jordan Willow Evans on January 2, 2023 1:21 PM

Happy New Year!

As part of our mission to promote awareness and mature discussions of third parties and independent candidates, Independent Political Report hosts a monthly open thread. Readers may use this thread to share news and stories about third parties and independent candidates not found elsewhere. The Independent Political Report editorial team, in addition, kindly asks that readers remember our Civility Policy. Readers may find a complete list of policies in the website’s footer.

Jordan Willow Evans

Jordan Willow Evans is an editor and policy analyst based in Goffstown, New Hampshire. She serves as managing editor of Independent Political Report and executive director of the Outsider Media Foundation, a nonprofit news organization focused on independent and alternative political movements. She has studied third parties and political outsiders since her student years.

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23 Comments

  2. Ryan February 7, 2023

    “A couple of comments here have challenged the “you don’t have to be a member of Congress to be Speaker” idea, but it is in fact the truth:
    one does not have to be a member of Congress to receive votes for Speaker.”

    I’m not challenging the notion of it’s not specifically disallowed by law. I’m saying the notion a non-member can become Speaker is 1.) a loophole and 2.) is stupid.

    Forward Party of Minnesota per a screenshot posted on the Independence-Alliance Party of Minnesota Twitter February 2nd has terminated their committee with their year-end financial report to the state.

  3. Gene Berkman February 1, 2023

    A couple of comments here have challenged the “you don’t have to be a member of Congress to be Speaker” idea, but it is in fact the truth:
    one does not have to be a member of Congress to receive votes for Speaker.

    In 1997, several Republicans concerned about ethics issues with Newt Gingrich voted for other candidates for Speaker. Rep Jim Leach voted for former Congressman Robert Michel, who had left Congress in in 1994; Rep Linda Smith (WA) voted for former Congressman Robert Walker, who had left Congress in 1996.

    It may be a waste of time, or a goofy idea to vote for a non-Member for Speaker, and it may be a bigger waste of time for a non-Member to seek the office of Speaker, but it is allowed by the rules of the House.

  5. Joe Wendt January 28, 2023

    Finally, the LNC is doing something right

    Z

    The Libertarian National Committee just sponsored what was basically a pro-Putin rally, including pro-invasion speakers literally on the Russian government payroll. https://t.co/hHTSf1pMA1— Donny Ferguson (@DonnyFerguson) January 28, 2023

  6. George Phillies January 24, 2023

    In addition the historical precedent is that an entirely new Constitution must be adopted by each state that is bound by it. Rhode Island almost didn’t.

  7. Ryan January 24, 2023

    1.) That is fearmongering because anything that comes out of said constitutional convention requires 38 out of 50 state legislatures (which with the exception of Nebraska are bicameral) for said amendment to become law and we have at least 13 left-wing states and 13 right-wing states. The partisan state of the country is such that anything nakedly partisan is not going to get added to the Constitution unless we as a country again enter a Reconstruction-type era where a lot of states are not allowed to have a vote either in Congress or on the amendment.
    2.) Congress could resolve this so-called “runaway convention” issue themselves…with a constitutional amendment! They have not because Congress as a whole is a failure on anything not concerning the spending of money which has led to Congress being nothing more than performance theater while an unelected executive branch has become superpowered. Congress could propose and pass an amendment regulating the procedure, membership, conduct, etc. of an Article V Constitutional Convention. I’m not aware of anyone attempting to do so since former North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin looked into the matter in the 1970s.

  8. Paul January 24, 2023

    How third parties die: https://reason.com/2023/01/24/the-life-cycle-of-a-third-party/

    As for your present discussion, the original constitutional convention was only charged to fix what they considered problems in the Articles of Confederation, not replace those altogether. There’s no reason to expect that an Article V Convention wouldn’t do the same thing to the present constitution, regardless of any supposed safeguards put in place beforehand.

  10. Ryan January 23, 2023

    “>>Reacting to comments from 2 weeks ago in this thread, so sorry, but I REALLY REALLY hate the whole “you don’t have to be a member of Congress to be Speaker” argument. This argument came from nowhere inside the last 5 years.
    I first heard it in 1962. From Robert Kennedy, no less, when he was at our home.”

    This was not close to a mainstream held and talked about theory as it became since Donald Trump was President and some conservative asshats in Congress started talking about to troll Democrats.

    “>>pro-Article V Convention
    As what we’re trying to do is spread the US Constitution as stands, I do not support this.”

    Why is it an either or? The Constitution can still stand as it is. But there are numerous problems that Congress is too dysfunctional or uninterested in resolving. There’s a bucket list of well-meaning reforms that could be added to the Constitution that are not partisan. But because they are not partisan, no one wants to do anything.

    -an Anti-Nepotism Amendment that applies for all government, not just Congress; would extend the Bobby Kennedy Law to the executive as well as local government; could add the Lisa Murkowski Corollary to stop any open seat appointments from being given to family members of the resignee/recently deceased/etc.
    -implement the Continuity of Government Commission solutions in part at the very least because when shit hits the fan is not the time to solve problems on the fly; the Law on Presidential Succession is a complete disaster as far as the loopholes involved if we ever have to go beyond Vice President; both houses of Congress voting to affirm the choice for VP in event of vacancy as specified in the 25th Amendment would fail in the current politicized climate if one of the houses is held by the opposite party; and one of the Commission employees that lobbied members of Congress to implement the Congress-related solutions to a 9/11-type disaster wrecking the Capitol stated in a podcast “it’s impossible to get members of Congress to confront their own mortality”. I’ll find the link if you’re interested, it was on Lawfare.
    -fix the idiotic loophole that a non-member of the House can become Speaker because American government is nowadays ran by lawyers that do everything based on loopholes

    Presidential Succession for example, it is not a fringe minority view that the Speaker is ineligible to become President. This is a credible theory from several well-known constitutional scholars. If you want to remove all doubt as to whether that is the case and you believe it should be that way, add a constitutional amendment stating that the Speaker of the House and Senate President Pro Tempore are Officers of the United States (while you’re at it, remove further ambiguity on whether Acting Secretaries of the various Cabinet Departments are Officers as well). That’s the time to figure out the problem, not after the president and vice president are both dead and our country would be in disarray completely unhelped by a legal fight that would probably last a few months where every single decision the president makes it’s questionable him or her actually have the authority. Why does anyone think that which is the current status quo is preferable?

  11. Michael Francis Gilson January 19, 2023

    I hear you, Ryan. My thoughts.

    >>Reacting to comments from 2 weeks ago in this thread, so sorry, but I REALLY REALLY hate the whole “you don’t have to be a member of Congress to be Speaker” argument. This argument came from nowhere inside the last 5 years.

    I first heard it in 1962. From Robert Kennedy, no less, when he was at our home.

    >>pro-Article V Convention

    As what we’re trying to do is spread the US Constitution as stands, I do not support this.

    >.> a non-American Speaker cannot become President

    Such a person would be skipped over.

    Thanks for the comments.

  12. Michael F Gilson January 19, 2023

    A trend that seems to be warming up is pseudo-scientists interviewing small numbers of random people who think they’re libertarian, or in one case (Pew) mis-interpreting Libertarian tools to create a sample based on their misunderstanding, then claiming ‘libertarianism’ is some sort of extreme group/does not advocate solutions it holds.

    Here is the latest: New study finds libertarians tend to support reproductive autonomy for men but not for women
    https://www.psypost.org/2023/01/new-study-finds-libertarians-tend-to-support-reproductive-autonomy-for-men-but-not-for-women-64912

    The study : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12867

  13. Ryan January 19, 2023

    Reacting to comments from 2 weeks ago in this thread, so sorry, but I REALLY REALLY hate the whole “you don’t have to be a member of Congress to be Speaker” argument. This argument came from nowhere inside the last 5 years. It’s how lawyerized our government and politics has become that we’re stating “it’s not disallowed”, completely ignoring the context on the WHY it has never occurred the previous 234 years. I’m a pro-Article V Convention guy and shit like this is part of the reason why: do well-meaning nonpartisan reforms and get rid of loopholes in the Constitution that Congress can’t be bothered to. I like Amash a lot and if he runs for the Libertarian presidential nomination and I’m deemed a national delegate I’ll probably vote for him, but this attempt at attention from him was crap.

    As far as a non-American Speaker cannot become President, I join most constitutional scholars and believe it is unconstitutional that the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore are eligible to become President.

  14. George Phillies January 13, 2023

    Our sister publication’s latest article:
    Libertarian National Party Money and Members Down

  15. Michael F Gilson January 9, 2023

    “Yes that’s true as far as that position goes, but not being a natural-born American would disqualify that person from succeeding to the Presidency. A current example of this is Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who ordinarily would be 15th in line to the Presidency (the order of succession from the Cabinet being when the department was created, and Energy is a relatively new animal). Because she is a naturalized citizen, she’s ineligible to succeed should the 14 people in line ahead of her all defect to North Korea – the line of succession would skip over her and the next President would be the Secretary of Education.”

    Thanks for your comment, and wish you well in your TV career.

    That is, of course, correct.

    For that matter, they could appoint talking stones to SCOTUS.

    This has legal precedent in common law.

  19. Anastasia Beaverhausen January 7, 2023

    “Well, here’s a step in the right direction. BTW, no Constitutional Requirement exists that Speaker be a sitting House Rep. Doesn’t even have to be American.”

    Yes that’s true as far as that position goes, but not being a natural-born American would disqualify that person from succeeding to the Presidency. A current example of this is Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who ordinarily would be 15th in line to the Presidency (the order of succession from the Cabinet being when the department was created, and Energy is a relatively new animal). Because she is a naturalized citizen, she’s ineligible to succeed should the 14 people in line ahead of her all defect to North Korea – the line of succession would skip over her and the next President would be the Secretary of Education.

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