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Comment by bigstrat2003 | Hacker News Reader

bigstrat2003·

So, vote for a third party. If you don't actually like the candidate you vote for, you're engaging in political negligence. When I vote, I almost never vote for a Republican or Democrat candidate because they are, by and large, not people I want representing me. So I vote for someone I do want representing me.

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Voting 3rd party is throwing away your vote in the US electoral system. The reason is structural. Currently, I believe there are two independent senators and one independent representative. Independents are not another party they are just unenrolled and they all caucus with one of the two major parties. There is no third party representation in congress.

Less than one third of eligible voters vote. Your espousing a self fulfilling prophecy.

The only reason party politics exists is because of you and people like you who keep spouting this lie that keeps them in power.

So instead of lying just say that you fully agree with everything both parties do and thats why you keep them in power and refuse to vote for someone rather than against.

The two party system is the game theoretic result of first past the post. No amount of wishing will change that.

I understand this logic, but voting third-party should be reserved for democracies that are healthier than the US’s. When the only choice is a flawed but sane person or an extremist, a third-party vote is effectively a vote for the extremist. Your conscience is not as clean as you think it is, because you had the option to stop an extremist and didn’t take it.

That can work, if you are strategic about it. If your candidate is polling at 5%, you might as well have not voted at all.

Something I read once, probably 50 years ago now: you may not see a candidate you want to vote for, but you will probably see a candidate you want to vote against.

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