🚨BREAKING – Socialist Presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz is officially on the ballot in Virginia!
Rather than be forced to choose between the two war-mongering parties of Corporate America, the people of Virginia will have an option to vote for their needs and well-being this November.
Help us continue to build the socialist movement across Virginia and beyond.
In the USA you have a stark choice to make. If you vote for the Republican party you will likely have a dictator and the end of democracy. If you vote for the Democratic party you will likely have more of the same last few years with some small progress on progressive causes.
But if you vote third party you don’t get the third party. You don’t get what the third party option is offering, you get one of the two main parties instead. What this means is you really do have yo vote both for something and against something else.
If you vote for the Republican you are voting against the Democrat.
If you vote for the Democrat you are voting against the Republican.
If you vote third party you are voting against both of the major parties.
If your candidate has a real chance of reaching the plurarily in the electoral college then yes, you can vote for your third party candidate, but if not then any vote you make third party is actually not going to have any impact at all, being as it will be against both major parties equally.
So really, voting third party at a national level is useless. In a local race the chance of a win is much higher, but at a national level it is worse than meaningless. The effect you could have by voting for the major party which most closely aligns with your views is lost if you vote for a third party who has no chance of winning.
Now moving for ranked choice voting or similar is something you can do locally, voting for local races to have more socialist candidates is something you can do, funding independent journalism is something you can do, and running for local office is something you can do. All of those things as well as many more will take your effort and make actual positive change. Voting third party in a national election at this point in time will not.
My opinion is that voting third party is about standing up against a system that continuously fails to represent real working-class interests.
It may not always result in immediate wins, but it’s a way of showing that I won’t just settle for the lesser of two evils – the fight for true progress takes time, and building up third-party momentum is one step in that direction.
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I don’t believe blindly following the “dark woman” will lead to real change. I’m personally choosing to vote third party because I refuse to settle for the same system that continues to sink the boat, even if it seems like the safer option.
I am allowed to do that. And you are allowed to vote for who you wish. Welcome to democracy. :)
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I’m happily and proudly voting third party. As is my right. And I respect and support your right to vote how you wish as well.
True, but how do we manage the harm done in the present. Sure, one day, maybe, we will get to socialism, but until then people suffer today. Should we not look pragmatically at the most effective thing to do now with a mind to future strategy? For example, in the short term better protections for workers does entrench capitalism by helping it limp on for a while longer, but people benefit from that now and restricting companies can create a cultural shift which reduces their ability to impact future elections, say when a vote for a particular socialist idea is being debated. Does that make sense?
It’s true that incremental reforms can provide temporary relief, but they usually just strengthen the very system that oppresses workers in the first place. Capitalism adapts to these reforms, using them to pacify the masses without addressing the root cause of inequality.
Yes, people benefit from protections today, but without a radical shift toward socialism, those benefits are always at risk of being stripped away the moment the system feels threatened. We need a long-term vision for dismantling the capitalist structure, even if it means enduring more struggle in the short term. I think that’s the only way to ensure true, lasting change for workers.