this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Mildly Interesting
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…as long as choice #3 isn’t apocalyptically bad, right?
Right?
Well if you write in someone who is "apocalyptically bad" that one is definitely on you.
Choice 1: third party you prefer Choice 2: mainstream party you prefer Choice 3: mainstream party you don’t prefer that gives off apocalyptic vibes
This is what I was trying to describe. It’s the same old US third party voting trap as always.
That's only true if everyone believes that, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Would really be fantastic to see just once, one time, everyone interconnects on social media and agrees to vote on a third party, as an experiment if nothing else, to finally prove/disprove that theory.
Funny enough these newer generations have this communicative interconnectivity of the Internet available to them, that previous generations didn't have, but they don't seem to use it, instead they just share mene pics/vids, etc.
Could you imagine the political earthquake though if a third party actually won? Would be glorious to see.
The problem there isn’t that we (assuming the US) don’t want third parties, it’s that our voting system encourages party consolidation rather than cooperation. That only gets more true the higher in the government you go.
That's not true. People don't vote for third party because of the self-fulfilling prophecy, but it doesn't mean they don't want it. They also want ranked-choice voting.
I would advocate to put that self-fulfilling prophecy to the test, even if just as an experiment one time.
I think you’re agreeing with me there. People want other choices, but they get ignored because they have no chance of winning.
It would be great if we couple coordinate and just try it one year, but change needs to be able to happen gradually too. Our system in practice actively punishes third party voting by your vote benefiting the major party you DON’T want.
I bet people would want ranked choice or similar if given the option. I think the establishment really doesn’t like that idea and actively works against it, though.
Fair enough, yep, sorry for the confusion.
I just wanted to be explicit and generally push back against the notion that Americans don't want other choices to vote for, especially in this election cycle.