[untog]

Whether or not Ballmer or Gates are supporters, the Republican Party's shift towards fundamentalism is not supported by all of their base. The number of votes for Ron Paul in the primaries show that there is a sizable base still interested in small government and minimal taxes.

I honestly do believe we'll see a third party (be it Fundamentalist of Libertarian, depending on who 'wins' the Republicans) with a decade or two. The outcome of this coming election (whether Romney wins, and how the party reacts) could be a deciding factor.

[rickmb]

"shift towards"? The Republican party has been fundamentalist by all but American standards, and I'm not even talking about the more extreme tea party folks. Those are just plain insane.

[JS_startup]

Sounds like he means fundamentalist in the religious sense. Believe it or not the evolution of the neo-con and American Christianity's attachment of itself to the GOP is a pretty recent development. Not long ago an average Republican was mainly fiscally conservative and the "family values" types were the outliers.

[technoslut]

Businesses will vote in their best interests. Both Ballmer and Gates grew up in upper or wealthy middle class. They've always voted Republican.

> I honestly do believe we'll see a third party

Hopefully, but I was a former political junkie and third parties were never elected.

[semanticist]

The third party of British politics - the Liberal Democrats - are currently in power due to a coalition government, and this is under a FPTP system not a PR system, so coalitions are uncommon.

For a Presidential election a coalition doesn't make sense, but you guys do have other branches of government that could use a bit of a change.

[sukuriant]

I think his point was an honest, sizeable third party, as opposed to the small grass movements of Nader, etc.