Here’s the problem: Trump is out to maximize environmental damage and the US Green Party runs as spoilers. Let’s look at three scenarios:
Scenario 1:
Harris: 1001 votes
Trump: 1000 votes
Stein: 0 votes
Harris wins
Scenario 2:
Harris: 1000 votes
Trump: 1000 votes
Stein: 1 vote
Tied vote, which goes to the courts and Congress, putting Trump in power
Scenario 3:
Harris: 999 votes
Trump: 1000 votes
Stein: 2 votes
Trump wins outright
This spoiler effect makes it really imperative to actively vote for Harris if you want to see any kind of climate action going forward. Republicans know this, which is why they’re the ones funding the Green Party.
And that’s why the European Greens want Jill Stein to step down now — they get that what she’s doing is making it easier to elect a fascist bent on environmental destruction.
There’s plenty of people who are not fine with the current system that would vote for a third party. I’m gonna make an assumption less stupid than yours and claim that actually most people are not fine with the current system and would gladly vote for another candidate if it wasn’t for the narrative spinning the fight between red and blue.
The fight is between Red and Blue. FPTP election systems don’t really allow new parties to become relevant — and if a new party did gain relevance, it would fully replace one of the existing parties within very few election cycles.
The point is: You need a Democratic or Republican majority to reform the election system first before the Greens or any other party can become a relevant factor. The US democratic system is older than the democratic systems of most other countries. And it shows.
All it takes for a party to become relevant is a pop star with million of followers making a post.
Meanwhile, actual pop stars
The people who are Republicans that would be voting third party aren’t just going to vote for HARD-D. They’re going to vote for someone closer to their home turf. They’re going to vote for Chase Oliver (or maybe RFK in the states he’s still on the ballot) as – at best – a protest vote.
FPTP is going to eventually converge into a 2 party system in the end anyways, it’s basic statistics. Without a different method of voting, third party candidates are a throw-away vote.
You’re not wrong about the rest - but your matchup of “Jill Stein is taking voters from Trump” is waaaaaaaaay off in left field. It’s such a shiitake mushroom that you’d literally have to be living under a rock for the past 20 years to believe such a thing.
Just a small, pointless nitpick that doesn’t matter, but made me smile because of the implication:
It should be “home turf” not “home terf”. But the latter is probably just as true as the former.
God damn I am on Lemmy too much to be using terf instead of turf when I mean turf…thanks for catching that; corrected it.
The majority of people who vote red or blue are simply picking a side they are not hard core fanatics.
Nah. In many places of the US you’re told that it’s your “identity”. Kentucky, Tennessee, etc – They are told from birth that they “ARE” Republicans. That it’s a physical, tangible thing that identifies them. And yes - when they pick a side, it’s based on their political leanings. Who leans closer to someone who’s going to pick a republican candidate? Jill Stein, or Chase Oliver? – the answer is Chase Oliver.
I’m sorry that you can’t accept that you’re wrong about the Jill Stein thing, but that’s just simply how it be.
You can try yourself by asking people down the street. The average person doesn’t care about politics.
I would know, I canvassed the neighborhoods getting people to register to vote…
Have you spoke to your neighbors? It sounds like you are wildly out of touch.
If you did this it’s because the average person doesn’t care about politics.