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this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2024
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This doesn't quite apply to me, since I live somewhere with RCV and gladly use it. But:
A third party that doesn't waste my time by only running top-line candidates while ignoring every other aspect of the necessary political gains to achieve their goals. Especially when the planks of their platform are overwhelmingly in the hands of the house and senate and not in the purview of the one position for which they decided to lackadaisically run. A third party presidential win with no support in the legislature would doom any real progress that third parties could hope to achieve - giving us a figurehead with no means to enact their agenda would only dissuade voters from seeing future candidates as viable and locking us back into the same dichotomy.
All the people who were doing that are now pushing RCV or other election reforms that would make it realistic for third parties to be able to get all the way to winning. The third-party people who are running in FPTP elections are, almost universally, either attention-seekers or deliberate spoiler candidates. Bernie Sanders, when he was running, joined up with the Democrats instead of running as a spoiler candidate, because he's making an earnest attempt at making things better.
It doesn't really matter now because we've slipped one rung down the civilizational Maslow pyramid now, and are in for a fight to preserve the right in any capacity to elect who we want in power. But, whenever we make it back out to the other side of that, it'd be nice to remember to reconfigure the system so third parties can actually win, first, and then run third party candidates after that, not the other way around.
Firmly agreed. Too many people I know forget that social progress is measured in inches and social regression is measured in yards (cm's and m's for our other friends). I'll gladly vote "no backsliding" on the top line, knowing that I can keep pressuring for progress in the interim.
The viability and practicality of third party presidential candidates isn't relevant to the question. If the Democratic party doesn't change and keeps losing, what good does it do for Democratic progressives to keep compromising for it when third party candidates with better platforms are available?
^ that was your question, and telling me my reasoning behind the answer I gave isn't relevant to what it would take me to vote third party is farcical and asinine, and that's being generous
So then no amount of failure or lack of corrective action on behalf of the Democratic party would get you to cast a vote for a third party presidential candidate?
Edit: I mean if you didn't have RCV.
With fptp, other better leverage points exist than dividing progressive voting share at the top. That's our opportunity (as I see it) to state that we would like to keep the progress we've made, however small it might be. Downballot races all the way down to town boards are how we can push the legislation and policies we wish to see signed into law to achieve further progress. Success there also allows for more leftist/progressive people to be the pool for presidential candidates.