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The trouble with supporting a third party -- and I say this as someone inclined to support a third party -- is that anybody who actually does it is either (a) an idiot who doesn't understand the game theory of first-past-the-post voting, or (b) an incredibly fringe nutjob. The result is that all third parties absolutely destroy all their credibility and ruin any chance of getting more mainstream.
If you're a third-party-inclined person who isn't an idiot or a nutjob, your only real option is to vote for Democrats in general, and ones who support ranked choice voting in particular (because you sure as Hell aren't gonna get it from the Republicans), and then switch to your third party of choice only after ranked-choice voting is passed.
My state is nowhere near anywhere close to being a swing-state. My vote for president carries very little weight. For this reason, I vote for whichever party actually aligns with my ideology.
An acquaintance once tried to scapegoat me and my vote for Jill Stein as the reason that Donald Trump won in 2016.
That's not how the electoral college works.
If you live in a deep Red or deep Blue state, you definitely aren't responsible for Donald Trump's win in 2016, BUT we need to defeat Trump, and we need every vote we can get, everywhere we can get it, so Trump finds it hard to steal the election, because we know he will.
At least, if you live in California or Oklahoma, your nonsense vote won't give us Trump, but unless you are CERTAIN you can throw your vote away, I'd ask you to look at your wife, sister, and/or mother and ask yourself if you want them subjected to Project 2025. If you don't, and I hope you don't, save the protest votes for your city/county/state governments where they might actually accomplish something.
Virtue signalling into the void. Don't get me wrong, I did it too in 2012 because I was disillusioned with Obama and I live in a deeply blue state. But that's all it is. You're better off writing an encouraging letter to your candidate of choice, or talking to your neighbors about the city council, or any number of other things that might actually make a material impact on someone's life.
It doesn't do anything, but neither does voting for a Democratic president in a non-swing state. They could just leave the box blank too. They're not choosing "should I check the president box or talk to my neighbors", they're at the voting booth, presumably because other races matter, and filling in the box because it's there. None of the options in that race matter and the comment you're replying to is explicitly about how it doesn't matter, so why are you even complaining?
Your point is that doing something is more effective than doing nothing? You sure got me there. I have to say that I agree.
The Democrats are going to give you ranked-choice voting so they can potentially lose your vote.... Thank god you are not an idiot.
San Francisco has ranked choice voting because there's no way in hell a Republican could win here. That's what we should be aiming for.
The Democrats give us nothing. We voters take.
Maine and Alaska use RCV now, and while Alaskan politicians are trying to ratfuck the votes (because Sarah Palin lost to a Democrat under FPTP), both states have seen people not get a Republican thanks to their vote for Third Parties on the Left, as long as they at least grudgingly mark the Dem ahead of the Rep on the RCV ballot.
Colorado's going to vote on this this November, too, which means I can actually vote Third Party without being ratfucked by that choice. Then I'll happily say 'Vote Green to hold Blue accountable, but make sure Blue shows up before Red so Red doesn't ratfuck all of us on the Left."
If you wonder about the constant use of ratfucking in my post, have a read and see what it means...
Yes. That's because the Democratic Party isn't some monolithic machiavellian organization.