It does. Not only does it help the party I support by giving them more access to funding, ballot presence, media appearances and raising public awareness of their very presence and platform, it shows the two major parties what votes they’re leaving on the table when they abandon the ideas I support.

If you want a concrete example of a third party making a huge difference, Perot ‘92 is pretty undeniable. His campaign raised awareness of and rendered nafta, which passed with bipartisan consensus, an unpopular policy and ensured its replacement with an agreement that would at least be talked about as significantly different. His campaign was also found years after the fact to have not been a spoiler and to have actually hurt Clinton’s victory margin most of all.