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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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politics
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By your logic, every election was spoiled. There hasn't been an US presidential election without any third party candidates as far as I have been able to find.
The way to win elections is by running candidates people want to vote for. Complaining that people are running for office in a representative democracy is not a good way to win votes.
This is valid logic in normal times. But these are not normal times. Let's get real here.
The First Past the Post system means Third Parties are virtually unelectable. Add to that the US system of government (needing a majority of votes to elect a Speaker or Senate Majority Leader, Electoral College, Majority needed to avoid POTUS picked by the House, etc), and we've got our own unique challenges to Third Parties, and those problems are going to need a Constitutional Convention to fix. People who willingly ignore this are stupid, and only serve to damage their political side.
If you need this explained again to you, here we go. Suppose 50.1% of the nation leans Left, while 49.9% leans right. That's a pretty narrow split. You really can't afford to lose anyone. But then some doofus comes up with a Left2 party and claims the mainstream Left party isn't doing enough, and if you just elect them, they'll give everyone the shiny golden alicorn that farts rainbows they swear they are owed. It doesn't take much. If 0.3% of the voters in the country believe that Left Party isn't doing enough, and switch their vote to Left2 Party, suddenly it's 49.9% Right, 49.8% Left, and 0.3% Left2, and now EVERYTHING Left and Left2 cherish is torn down by Right party, and you regress.
This is fine in most circumstances. You don't always get what you want, and sometimes, Left2 voters need to be reminded of this harshly by the Right party, and maybe in the next election, they'll figure out how voting works in the Not-So-United States of America, and they'll turn out to vote for Left party despite not getting the shiny golden alicorn that farts rainbows because they realise they aren't even getting a broken down old donkey from Team Right.
But these aren't normal times. We don't have Left and Right parties here in the USA today. We have Centre-Right and Fascist parties. You aren't getting a shiny golden alicorn that farts rainbows. Your choices right now are a slightly used donkey from Team ~~Left~~Centre Right, and a jackboot on your face from Team ~~Right~~Fascist. Team Shiny Alicorn is there to suck your votes away, but when you lift the curtain JUST a little on Shiny Alicorn, you see one of Team Fascist's goons operating the controls. We're just trying to ask you to make the smart choice here, buddy. But I'm helping my wife get set up for school in New Zealand, because I don't trust the rubes who will fall for the bait and switch with Team Shiny Alicorn...I half expect Trump to be POTUS and his goons to start looking for people like my Bisexual Black Pagan Goth Wife, and people like me who dare sully the White race by being with someone like her. Please prove me wrong....
Let me be clear: this specific third party is most likely a GOP-led operation to bleed votes from the left. They do not have real policy goals that align with what people on the left actually want. Their goal is for a Republican to win, not someone from their party.