Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently made headlines for calling perennial Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein “predatory” and “not serious.” AOC is right.

Giving voters more choices is a good thing for democracy. But third-party politics isn’t performance art. It’s hard work — which Stein is not doing. As AOC observed: “[When] all you do is show up once every four years to speak to people who are justifiably pissed off, but you’re just showing up once every four years to do that, you’re not serious.”

To be clear: AOC was not critiquing third parties as a whole, or the idea that we need more choices in our democracy. In fact, AOC specifically cited the Working Families Party as an example of an effective third party. The organization I lead, MoveOn, supports their 365-day-a-year efforts to build power for a pro-voter, multi-party system. And I understand third parties’ power to activate voters hungry for alternatives: I myself volunteered for Ralph Nader in 2000, and that experience helped shape my lifelong commitment to people-first politics.


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  • @PeggyLouBaldwin
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    -103 months ago

    i’m not going to take responsibility for the policies of someone i vote against. that makes no sense.

    • @MegaUltraChicken
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      93 months ago

      You’re still ignoring the realities of FPTP voting. There is precisely one way to effectively “vote against” the GOP during the general election and you seem to be advocating against it.

      Explain to me how Gaza gets better if Trump wins. Or literally any issue. Even if the loss magically created a huge shift in the Democratic leadership that echoed throughout the caucus and they go all in on every progressive policy we could possibly want. Let’s say they make Rashida Tlaib minority leader. Let’s say every single Democrat now supports a full embargo of Israel until they cease all hostilities. Lets say every Democrat now supports whatever policy you want. How does any of that help once the government is fully controlled by fascists that will literally make it impossible for the now Super Progressive Democratic Party to ever get back in power and do those things?

      If your justification for supporting the GOP is that the Democrats haven’t done enough on Gaza that’s fine. I just question the logic.

      • @PeggyLouBaldwin
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        -93 months ago

        Explain to me how Gaza gets better if Trump wins.

        i’m not voting for trump.

        • @AbidanYre
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          93 months ago

          You’re just doing everything you can to help him win.

          • @PeggyLouBaldwin
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            -73 months ago

            except the only thing i could do: vote for him instead of against.

      • @PeggyLouBaldwin
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        -113 months ago

        your justification for supporting the GOP

        i’m not supporting the gop. you’re lying.

        • @MegaUltraChicken
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          83 months ago

          It’s a pretty simple concept and the only response is usually “not uh!”

          Just so everyone else is aware, we’re now here.

            • @MegaUltraChicken
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              73 months ago

              Calling me out would suggest you’ve provided some evidence that I’m lying, despite just having my reasoning clearly laid out. Reasoning that you’ve provided no alternative to outside of “you’re lying”.

              So where’s this call out? Explain to us how there aren’t 2 possible winners of the election in our FPTP system.

              Spoiler

              We’re going back to “Not Uh!”

                • @MegaUltraChicken
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                  43 months ago

                  They want to punish Democrats more than they want to stop the GOP. These people are willing to let Trump erase Gaza in order to say “we told you so!” to the Democrats. They don’t give a shit how many more people are harmed as long as they feel like they stuck it to somebody in the voting booth.

                  • ArxCyberwolf
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                    63 months ago

                    And they completely ignore what’ll happen to people in the US itself if Trump wins as well. They’re completely willing to throw everyone under the bus to feel smug and righteous. Hell, I’d imagine most of them want to do so. The most you’ll ever get from them is *BoTh SiDeS bAd" which is ignorant at best. Anyone with a pair of working brain cells is able to tell the difference.

              • @PeggyLouBaldwin
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                -53 months ago

                Calling me out would suggest you’ve provided some evidence that I’m lying

                i am the authority on who i am supporting, and my word is the only evidence you have. you are lying about who i support. and now you’re gaslighting me about needing to provide evidence.

                • @MegaUltraChicken
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                  83 months ago

                  You are the authority on what you do. You don’t get to ignore the results because you don’t want to take responsibility. You’ve declared your actions, I’ve explained the results.

                  Honestly this has gone in a circle long enough. We’re not going to get anywhere if you dont want to provide any kind of evidence/reasoning and basely accuse me of lying. I do appreciate you assisting illustrate a valuable point about how hollow the 3rd party justification is though. Have a nice day!