Listen, I understand the argument and probabilities. Given the massive restrictions on political competition and the near shutout of third parties by the media, the system is set to elect a D or an R. So we sit here and say here is the D, here is the R; one of them is so bad that you have to vote for the other. That’s essentially the argument, which one is so bad depends on which side you support.
So we take this relative scale and the best we can come up with is X is so bad we have to vote for Y. I can’t vote for Z because Z can’t win and I need to prevent X. And Z won’t win for as long as enough people convince themselves that Z can’t win. But that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy for a different time.
If this were stand alone, if it were just one election when the choices were so bad that we just have to hold our nose and vote for Y to stop X, it would be one thing. But this is now the trend. A trend is radically different than a stand alone. Each election becomes X is so bad, you have to vote for Y. Each election, the choices get worse, and by participating in that system, you encourage it to become worse. You embolden the status quo to continue the path we are on.
You won’t change the status quo by supporting the status quo
Because it is a trend, it is unsustainable. There’s only so many times we can pull this lever before we’ve irrevocably damaged the Republic. The only way to stop it is to stop it. It’s to stop supporting the status quo since it is the status quo that is slowly taking us down the road to hell. So maybe it will certainly be X or Y, but on the absolute scale X and Y are both horrible. The lesser of two evils is still evil, and if you make a trend of it then you make a trend of supporting evil.
So here we sit, yet again, at a presidential election cycle where the best argument isn’t how wonderful a candidate is, what a great job they can do, what a complete platform they have, oh look at the plans they laid out to accomplish a, b, and c; it’s intelligent and will benefit us all. No, it’s once again, X is so bad you have to vote for Y. But both X and Y are horrid, bottom of the barrel (though next election cycle, they’ll find a lower bottom) tripe that will do harm to the Republic.
Do I support this system? Do I pay into it with my vote? If I do so, I’m just encouraging it. If I vote for them, I embolden them. I give them the excuse to do it all over again the next time. And they will, and the choices will once again get worse. It’s hard to imagine a worse than Hillary or Trump….but they will find it. I am left with NO choice but to support third parties regardless of their probability of winning. Not voting and voting Republocrat will only result in the same thing, encouraging the status quo. But I don’t like the status quo, I don’t like this bigger government, bigger war, bigger brother, bigger debt, bigger “nation building” track that we are on.
So in the end, I need to evaluate what to do. How can I affect the system? Not voting and voting Republocrat produce the same outcome. The only chance I have, even if it’s a remote outside change, the only one I have is third party support. There is no other lever.
And in the end, third parties do not need to win to be effective. They need to aggregate enough votes to disrupt the power balance of the Republocrats. Force one side to continually lose, that side will have to change its platforms and candidates to regain power. It’s not much of a chance, it does suck, it is a hard row to hoe…but it’s what we got. I’m going to take it, I have to. Either Hillary or Trump will be a disaster, I’m done supporting disasters.