I've been debating to myself whether or not voting for a third party candidate (Either PSL's de la Cruz or Green's West, regardless of my criticisms for both) would be the most "effective" use of my time in election season this year. The argument for "not" is that maybe voting at all is bad because it legitimizes this system, even if a third party candidate getting a record turnout would grab more attention (and piss off Blue MAGA cultists) than simply not going since it's not like abysmal turnouts, even by this country's historical standards, are newsworthy at this point. So I guess I have to ask how you people rationalize voting or not this year?
I fully understand that this is more symbolic than anything else and won't materially affect change for a while but it's still something to think about.
I'm voting PSL in a swing state. I have a bunch of friends in safe dem states and when they get mad at me for this I ask them why they're voting for the dems there if it doesn't even matter, are they just in it for the love of the game (genocide)?
A bunch of them have offered to do the vote swap thing with me but I'm thinking not. To the extent electoral politics matters and voting is a feedback loop on politicians (very limited), biden won't be rewarded with my vote.
Do the vote swap, then vote third party anyway
They were never going to follow through with it anyway. "vote swappers" never do.
lol im picturing dem party operatives arranging vote swaps w multiple third party supporters, trading their one vote for thousands, and then still voting dem
i was googling vote swapping and apparently the hillary ppl kind of did that
as always the only acceptable protests are the ones without any possible effect
lmao wtf? did the Seattle times just copy & paste a press release straight from the company?
the term "protest vote" makes me want to punch someone. Fuck you. This candidate represents my interests and yours doesn't. I vote for the candidate that advances my agenda. This is how liberal democracy is "supposed" to work. Run a better platform or eat shit. I owe you nothing
loool this is so reddit coded
That's seems unfalsifiable, I've got no reason to think my vote swapping experiences didn't work out.
No reason to think they would work out either. Would a liberal truly get to the ballot box and actually fill in the communist party candidate's bubble instead of just voting the blue no matter who that's truly in their heart? Is the option to vote for your candidate even really on their ballot? Would it even matter if they wrote the candidate in?
Write-in candidates have to register to even be a write in candidate in many states and most don't do so. In 2020, Gloria LaRiva's PSL ticket was only even on the ballot or a write-in in a grand total of 32 states+DC, putting them 75 electors short of the 270 to win even if they took every single elector in every single state for which they had ballot access.
If you're in a state where you can't even vote for the candidate you want, sure try the swap. But don't put too much faith in liberals following through on promises, they're about as bad at is as their politicians.
Honestly if they're white libs, I expect them to be lying shitheaps een on shit that doesn't matter; no way in hell would I trust them with smth that actually does
Obviously if it's someone you met on Twitter with "#withHerforever" in their bio, then yeah, no reason at all to trust that they'll follow through.
But if you know someone in real life and trust them, and they have a basic understanding of the electoral colleges functionality (some not a democratic presidential campaign manager), they'd have to have some pretty massive brainworms to break that trust for absolutely no effect.
I vote swapped in 2016, I'm confident they followed through cause I trust who I did it with.
I remember a Redditor getting really upset with me for not voting for Biden last cycle despite not being in a swing state, because Trump might rig the elections and it would be harder to do that somehow if people voted.
I guess if 2000 wasn't close in FL bush couldnt have done what he did? but also who fucking cares
Yeah if I lived in one of the 5-6 swing states they might have some kind of argument but I don't.
Just say to them, if you really don't want trump to win you should move to a swing state, otherwise you're basically voting for trump
There is a very funny aspect of how much they fetishize swing state votes but would absolutely fucking never want to live in one of those states lmao. But still they want to control how the people who do live in those states vote!
Tell them "a dem vote in a safely blue state is a bigger waste than 3rd party. If a 3rd party gets over 5% of the popular vote nationally, they start to get access to public campaign funds. At least your vote might accomplish something."
I personally don't know if 3rd party votes do much, but as long as we're debating "wasted votes," dem in a safe blue state is the ultimate waste.