With the election coming up, I’d like to express one final piece of advice.
Vote with you conscious. Do the research and analysis. Vote for whoever you feel will better run this country and bring it to the future.
Whether it be Clinton’s shadow politics, Trump’s frat-boy revolution, Johnson’s don’t-give-a-shit policy, or Stein’s pandering pile of nonsense. I can’t judge you for wanting the same thing I do.
But given the ridiculous nature of this season, I’d like you to keep your choice in the back of your head. Keep it there for the next four years.
Note your satisfaction with your victory or attempts at such. Note if you ever regretted your choice. If you voted third party, note how your decision affected the turnout of the election. Could something else have been done? Is there still time to fix this?
Maybe there is. So please keep that in mind and good luck.
Edited to remove my rather rude generalization of third-party voters. It was uncalled for, and I apologize.
But on that note, let’s talk about why I don’t believe in third-party power in the US.
Is there a Green in congress? Is there a Libertarian in congress? No, not really. And that’s kinda the point. Third-parties have no power and no backing in the place that really matters. All they do is show up to elections with the futile belief that they’re a good alternative, and then they lose and never get go anywhere until four years later.
Which isn’t to rag on third parties in general, of course. Other countries do them just fine! Why? Because they actually have representatives to back them up
Just look at Canada’s House of Commons. Liberals (red) dominate along with the Conservatives (blue), but look at the NPD (orange) sticking out there. And the row of Bloc Québécois (light blue) members behind them.
The German Bundestag! Look at the distribution! It’s as if people vote for the party that mosts represents them and if enough people desire it, they can get a voice1 And they got alliances and stuff that lets you vote for a minnow party that hooks up with other bigger parties and you get in as a whole!
The Russian State Duma! Sure, the United Russia party makes this look like a single-party state, but you got your Communists and Liberal Democrats in there a bit. And know your political system is fucked when even Russia looks more like a rainbow than your own lower house.
The United States House of Representatives. See the difference?
American third parties don’t exist with regards to who’s making our laws. Sure, plenty of niche parties exist in the countries I just mentioned, but at least you get all the good ones represented in some way. And granted, parliamentary systems elect heads of government in a different way than we do, so there’s also that.
But where does that leave us? Well, if you’re a firm supporter of a third party, that is, you align yourself the most with that party’s platform and policies and wish to see it grow in the potential future, then I wish you good luck. Get motivated. Rally more people year-round instead of only at election time. Build up a consistent and loyal base. And get someone into Congress so it can look a little more colorful.
But if you’re voting third party because you’re bandwagoning on a hatred of having to pick between two lackluster candidates, then I have no respect for you. You really don’t believe in the third party you’ve chosen, and you’ll just abandon them after the election is done and they haven’t won a thing. You remove votes from the race that does matter and skew the results, most likely away from your favor. And you get a pile of nothing but annoyance and possibly regret.
Your message of dissatisfaction gets redirected to a wall because you didn’t win a single electoral vote in the college. Newsflash: the popular vote does not matter in the presidential election (see 1876, 1888, and 2000, years where the college elected a president who lost the popular vote). Win a handful of states, see how that affects the election, then we’ll talk.
Do you believe in your third-party choice for 2016? Prove it. Stay with them, rally with them and don’t ever look back. Protest-vote like you actually mean it.
Otherwise, flip a coin or something for crying out loud.
