The Vaporous Principles Of Some Third Party Candidates

We've all come across good people who are disappointed in the selection of candidates  - Trump and Clinton to be specific.  Most of them voice their displeasure regarding Trump with scarcely a word for Clinton.  While I find that odd I'll leave that aside for the moment.

Some have stated their intentions to vote for a third-party candidate such as Tom Hoefling or Darrell Castle.  Why?  Because they "are principled unlike Trump". 

Really?  Are these third-party guys as "principled" as they portray themselves?  Think about what they are doing and the realistic impact of their actions.  Unless they are suffering delusions of grandeur, they know they haven't a prayer (literally) of garnering a decent showing let alone winning the election.  They have to realize that the few votes they'll get would have gone to Trump but for their candidacies.  Of course anyone with a modicum of common sense will understand that this would only make easier Clinton's bid for the White House.  Again I don't believe they'll garner that many votes, but since this will probably be a close election, every vote counts.  Consider that in 1960,  JFK defeated Nixon by a margin of less than one vote per precinct.

Either they really believe they have a shot at the White House or they don't care what their diversion of votes will do.  Therefore in the first case they haven't the intellectual acumen to hold the office of the US presidency or they really don't have the nation's best interests at heart.

I think it's the latter.  So what's driving their stunts?  Is it some sort of ego trip, self aggrandizement or even some, uh, "financial incentive"?  It's hard to say, and it probably doesn't matter.  Suffice it to say that their blithe disregard for the consequences of their actions causes me to look askance upon these so-called "principles" of theirs'.

I'm not opposed at all to the concept of a third party.  However, if a third party is to have any success, they have to start from the bottom up. They need to win lots of local offices then move up to Congress.  For any third party to go straight for the presidency is at best a publicly stunt; in today's circumstances it could have disastrous consequences for the nation.

If a third party does get off the ground, they better not float the above-mentioned individuals as candidates.  In their reckless pretensions for the presidency, they have demonstrated to me that they are utterly undeserving of public trust.