politics

Because it leaves open the potential for a Democrat v. Republican v. New Party election (at whatever level, not just presidency) and that's likely to improve Republican chances. Where the progressive candidates are strong it's better for them to beat the centrist in a one on one then take on the Republican with their center-left voters. Where they're weak the most a three way contest does is maybe make the right win over the center.

There are many many races without real Republican challengers where a new party could challenge moderate Democrats from the left, but in those situations the Democratic primary is the real vote and you might as well just win there.

Bernie already runs as an Independent!

State laws make ballot access difficult. Every state has its own rules and most of them are meant to exclude 3rd parties. Neither Dems nor MAGAts like competition.

Can’t say for sure, but I’d wager it’s because of campaign finance. Corpos fund campaigns and a pro worker 3rd party would be inherently against corporate interests. Anyone who tried to break away from the democrats would end up without any funds and new democrats would run against them with vastly more money.

It’s also worth considering that they’re probably not that popular. Most of the population are disengaged from politics and tend to just vote with the people in their communities. Text based social media tends towards a leftist bias and probably makes them seem more popular than they really are.

Because we have this stupid two party system. Its the second worst thing about our constitution (the first being the presidency)

They kind of are in a different party: the Democratic Socialists of America isn’t on the ballot but Bernie runs as an independent who caucuses with Democrats. If Democrats wanted to, they could run a candidate against him. But to form a truly independent third party, you’d just be splitting the votes on the left.

As you get to state and national elections where much of the nation is pretty evenly divided, running as a third party all but ensures the Republican will win (even without winning a majority in most states, though a few use different systems). In essence, our system requires coalitions to be made before the election rather than after.

You could compare it to UK elections. In 2024, Labour won 33% of the votes but won 411 of 650 seats because the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and regional parties split the rest.

Money. They wouldn't be able to fundraise the money they need to get messages out to people. Then there's the depressingly large number of Americans who vote by party in a system meant for voting by individual. They would lose funding and then get smashed in the elections because nobody knew the party was even there.

Yup. The DNC uses all their fight to keep progressives out, it's pathetic.

My SO and I have joked that while I could never win a local election, if I ran, I might just be able to get within punching range of our shitty representative.