I received my ballot a week ago and I couldn’t bring myself to fill it out yet. I’m scared of another Trump presidency if that is what happens, but I can’t keep supporting Democrats that have become what they claim to hate. I know if I vote for her that I’m sending a message that they can keep using the same playbook to move closer to fascism and corporatocracy.
They use their influence & power to eliminate opposition, and their donor money to astroturf social media. They censor other voices online, and spread lies about other people (Jill Stein) without evidence. They gaslight and claim you’re fascist for telling the truth and blame others for their mistakes. They’ll use your money to pay for genocide while turning a blind eye to help themselves, but make a thousand excused why they can’t help you.
They don’t deserve to win. Trump will be bad and I’m scared about what will happen if he wins, but you and I are not to blame. All they had to do was be truthful, transparent, empathetic and genuine—but their lust for power got in the way.
Third parties are great and we need them. That’s why first past the post needs to die first:
Https://youtu.be/s7tWHJfhiyo
Until we have ranked choice voting, or some kind of ranked list type vote, you really do only have two choices. Not because of limp-dick defeatism. Not because of establishment stranglehold. Because of voting math.
Basically, when you factor in the laws of votings physics, voting for Stein under this system isn’t voting for Stein, it’s voting for Trump. The way to get a Stein in the white house is to get Harris in now and then absolutely fucking bust balls and crack skulls to get ranked choice voting (or similar) passed.
Otherwise you are engaging in actions which do not lead to the outcome you yourself want. This is why first past the post needs to die. Given enough election cycles, it forces a choice between losing completely (trump) and not getting what you want (harris). It’s all just the effects of bad game rules.
How would third party voters already voting for someone else help Trump, unless they otherwise would vote for Kamala? What makes you think they’d vote for Kamala?
I think you just look at what the two candidates are offering and then look at the overlap between each of them and whatever third party you are considering voting for.
Using logic, the candidate that most closely matches your preferences is the one that is losing your vote, and since 3rd parties can’t win in a first past the post system, you have worked against your own best interests by giving your vote to the third party instead of the one of the 2 that matches your interests most closely, which gives the candidate that least aligns with your values an advantage of 1 vote not cast for their opponent.
It’s math. people who vote 3rd party aren’t just throwing their vote away, they are specifically hurting the major candidate that most matches their viewpoints.
In this case we can guess based on context who OP would vote for if only given 2 choices. And let me be clear: they are only getting two choices. They can choose the major candidate who aligns with their beliefs most closely, or they can waste their ballot, giving the other party the advantage.
Please don’t assume that my interests aligns closely with either bought-and-paid-for-by-corporations establishment two-party candidate. If I wasn’t voting for a third party candidate this election, then I wouldn’t be voting for any other candidate, so no one is taking my vote away because they never earned it in the first place.
That isn’t math and isn’t logical. We know that a candidate that is further from our values could get elected if we don’t vote for a two party candidate. That is a chance we’re willing to take and if you’d instead focus on making more demands from your preferred candidate, instead of attacking, lying about, and blaming other people, then you may get somewhere. Me personally, the final straw was Democrats supporting and enabling genocide. That’s where I draw my line in the sand. Her saying she wouldn’t do anything different than Biden was obvious and abhorrent.
It is math and logic. Humans are really bad at this and that’s how we get to where we are now. You are a good example and I think your arguments stand to show why.
Good luck with your democracy.
How’d that math (your bias) and logic (your emotions) work out for you?
The math and logic went as expected. Fools like you all over the country made ignorant selfish decisions, and here are the consequences.
I’m so confused why you’d bother to waste your time on a “gotcha!” With a stranger on the internet. But it shows how vain you are, so I guess that tracks.
You’re right about one thing, it went exactly as expected. The blame-anyone-but-ourselves Democrats will learn nothing from this and in 4 years you’ll be making the same mistakes that got you here.
What mistake are you referring to? Bothering to respond to you? I’m only human.