cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16451158
this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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"Both sides are bad" is correct, but perpetuate the notion that you only can vote on the two different parties. There are other parties you can vote on.
"Literally the only way to stay in power", do I need to remind OP that they WON the elections? Democracy goes both ways, your "side" doesn't always win.
Not in a presidential election. Not if you want your vote to matter at all.
Republicans also really love when you vote third party.
Dems/Repubs will happily play hot potato together forever, which they will if there is no third option, which there won't be if we maintain this perspective, and it will all continue dragging itself and all of us further and further right.
Which neither a Dem or Repub will ever allow, and since you are convinced those are currently the only two options, it means they will remain the only two options indefinitely.
Well, yes, there is a perverse incentive here. It sucks.
Basic math and game theory still means that voting third party is self-destructive, in the current US climate.
But I have actually been surprised by how fluid the UK system is right now. They have third parties, in a FPTP system. But the slavish Republicans voters seems to make that not viable in the US.
Only if you were going to vote Democrat.
Republicans hate republican voters going 3rd party.
Which is why the Republicans are directly helping the Green Party. Because every vote for the Green Party is one less vote for Democrats. Should give you a hint about who voting third party helps.
that's indirect "help"
So the title is
Seems pretty direct to me, right?
but they could not work directly with the campaign. Stein had no control over the messaging
And what does that difference matter?
they weren't directly helping her
that's not true. many people would vote for a green candidate but would never vote for a war party candidat.
Well, enjoy your Iran war, after refusing to vote for Kamela Harris. Harris would not have invaded Iran.
you can't know that
You can, though.
no, it's impossible to prove a nonfactual
Do you say that to the people who are saying Harris would have done the same things that Trump is doing, or is that only a response to people saying it’s blatantly fucking obvious that she wouldn’t? Sounds like cope to me.
we can't know what would have happened if she had won because she didn't win.
I don't see anyone saying she would have invaded iran, though, so I've never had the opportunity to educate such a person on the unprovableness of nonfactuals
We can.
We can know that she wouldn’t have the same administration who have been doing this shit. You can make some logical deductions that if we didn’t have Hegseth and the heritage foundation pulling all the strings with no consequences for their actions that things would, inarguably, not be happening as they are now. We can be sure the Venezuela and Cuba shit wouldn’t be happening. There are plenty of things that we absolutely can guarantee would not be happening, it just requires you to pull your head out of your ass.
this does not give us access to an alternate reality in which kamal won. it's just storytelling. there is no evidence for it because there can be no evidence for it.
It’s not about getting a wish, it’s about establishing accountability for actions and faulty reasoning. You are why we are here. Do better next time, if there is one.
Trump apparently took the decision to go to war against Iran ignorant of the Iranian threat to close the Hormuz straight. Even I knew Iran would do that.
The whole reason to go to war with Iran was to stop the Iranian nuclear program... which Trump himself cancelled Obama's deal to stop.
Harris would not have been Bibi's little bitch.
There is no reason to think that Harris would have gone to war with Iran.
this isn't proof. it's story telling
A democracy should be about voting for what you believe is the best course of action, and not to meta game the system. The system breaks when people think like this "if I don't vote for the other option my vote doesn't count".
Solution is to abolish first-past-the-post first. Not to ignore mathematics and pretend reality does not exist.
Sup? I'm here to remind you that you don't live in a perfect reality and never will.
It doesn't matter what SHOULD be. It matters what IS.
If you want to vote 3rd party in local/state elections to try to help build their influence and get more than ZERO of their members in Congress, that's great. But if you vote 3rd party in a presidential election when a 3rd party stands exactly NO chance of winning, then you are a fool who is throwing your vote away and acknowledging that you're fine with the worst case scenario happening.
To be clear, the 3rd party candidate with the most votes in the 2024 presidential election only got 0.5% of the total votes cast. Proving that there is no reality in which a 3rd party candidate wins the presidency.
I could have voted for Jeff Goldblum for president, cuz I think he's a cool guy. But that would have been pretty stupid, wouldn't it?
Exactly, that mentality is where democracy fails. You no longer vote for what you believe, you instead vote for what you think will win.