Do you actually like Clinton at all or do you just dislike Trump so much more and don't feel a third party vote is worth it?

crade-elcin:

post-cactus:

A mix of both.

Really, I feel like people are too easily falling for the idea that Clinton is some evil she-witch who is just as slimy as Trump.

That’s isn’t to say that she’s not imperfect, though. Even she wasn’t my first choice and I’ve always commented on how disconnected she seems with a younger audience, and how questionable her actions of late have been.

But she’s no Trump, and that is good enough for me.

As for third parties, it really isn’t worth it. Neither the Greens or Libertarians have a remote chance of winning, and all they’ll do is sap votes away from the Republicans and Democrats, potentially spoiling the election.

Seriously. Don’t do that.

voting for third parties is not worth it, because they won’t win anyways? what kind of backwards logic is that? you should encourage EVERYBODY to vote a third party, otherwise you’ll never get rid of the two party system, ever!

you can only get rid of this notion, that “only republicans or democrats matter”, when you finally stop pretending that only republicans or democrats matter.

We will never get rid of our two-party system. Not under our current system, that is.

Let’s imagine an election for a congressman in some district. There are four candidates: Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. They are all competing for one seat in Congress.

Red and Blue are the biggest parties and have platforms designed to attract as many voters as they can, with Green and Yellow trailing.

You are a Green supporter. But with the current polls and despite your best efforts, not enough people support the Greens for them to make a clear plurality. Reds and Blues are simply too stubborn to switch over, or don’t care.

What do you do? Well, you hate the Blues, as they are the most unlike the Greens. And some of what Red is offering aligns with your beliefs. So fuck it, vote for Red.

That’s the problem. There’s only one seat for you to vote on, so it’s advantageous to vote for the big party that aligns best with your ideas. You only need the most votes out of the four to get a plurality and win.

And this happens hundreds of times over as we fill the seats in Congress, voting for each individual congress

But what if you can get a surge in one of the third parties? Like, what if the Blues launch an exodus to Yellow for some reason and they win majorities in a lot of districts?

Well then, congratulations, you got Yellow in the congress. And over time, Yellow will grow in size as they start morphing their platform to attract more voters. Suddenly, we’re back to where we started. Only now, it’s always Red vs. Yellow.

It’s the same shit.

This is Duverger’s Law, and though it’s not prominently documented in every first-past-the-post system in the world, it most certainly is here in the US.

We’ve had two major parties competing against each other for over 200 years.

So unless we reform and switch to a better electoral system, it will always be this way. And from the looks of it, neither the Democrats or Republicans are looking to introduce competition anytime soon.