by dexeron » Thu Oct 29, 2015 8:44 am
Jill Stein is pretty awesome, and I'd love to see her get more exposure.
I know this makes me part of the "problem," I guess, but I just can't vote third party. I know that "nothing will ever change unless enough people decide to change it" but at the same time, unless we do something to change our "first past the post" system, there will never be enough people willing to jump ship and vote third party. They can't win because the system is simply rigged against them. So for now, we're stuck with the two-parties we have, and any changes will only happen organically, over time, and not as the result of some groundswell of support for someone trying to work from outside.
It's sad, because I probably agree with Stein on more stuff than I do with Sanders, but Stein doesn't stand a whelk's chance in a supernova, and since I live in a swing state, any vote I make for Stein is one less vote going to a Democrat, meaning it's a de facto vote for a Republican. I can't, in good conscience, do that.
Doesn't mean I think anyone else is wrong to vote third party. It's just why I can't bring myself to do it.
(You can bet your ass I do sometimes vote third party in local elections though. The way to get third parties to hold national prominence is to start at the local level, and actually work to make that aforementioned organic change begin.)