RFK Jr. can't win. But he and Cornel West could put Trump back in the White House.
In a race certain to be close, third-party candidates are not only a problem for President Joe Biden, they may pose his biggest hurdle to reelection.
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If they are big enough to ruin re-election chances then they are by definition big enough to make pursuing their votes worthwhile (because without them you will loose)
If you want a system where you can disregard that reality then you need a different electoral process. An easy way to mitigate that risk is to eliminate 3rd party candidates and make voting mandatory (or pressure 3rd parties to drop out and guilt non-voters into voting, as it were), but an astute observer might notice that looks an awful lot like something called a 'sham democracy'.
So just state outright that your intention is to hand the election to Trump.
Lol no, but as long as you're asking what I want: I want a system that can provide actual choices, rather than force a choice nobody wants.
But as long as that's not realistic, I want the choice that's blaming me for the destruction of my country to address my concerns in exchange for me choosing them.
What is definitely NOT what I want is to be blamed for my country's destruction AND have my concerns be ignored. That doesn't seem like a good system to me.
Lol no, but as long as you’re asking what I want: I want a system that can provide actual choices, rather than force a choice nobody wants.
Well voting third party, even if that party managed to succeed, will not accomplish what you claim to want.
We've had third parties that were successful in the past, guess what happened to the old party? It was displaced and became electorally irrelevant and then we were back to two parties again.
I was very clearly not describing our current system
So how does voting for third party do anything to further any change to the current system toward one you're talking about?
This really isn't that complicated. The country doesn't run a two-party system because of arbitrary or conspiratorial reasons, it runs one because the system's structure produces two parties.
Are we having two different conversations? Did you read what I wrote?
I'm not advocating voting third party, nor am I rationalizing a two party system as some type of conspiracy.
I was simply stating a desire for a system that actually produces real choices instead of the one we currently have that forces a choice nobody wants. How we get to that is another discussion, but frankly, we can't have that discussion when one party is panicking about loosing voters who are dissatisfied with the choices on offer because (i'm looking at you here) every statement of dissatisfaction is interpreted as subterfuge.
Last I checked, I'm not Biden and so I'm not panicking about "loosing" voters.
I learned for the final time in 2016 that the voters in this country are determined to take it to the brink of disaster every 4-8 years no matter what absurdity is carried into the office by the R behind his name.
I just genuinely don't understand the positions of third party voters nor their apologists (I'm looking at you here).
Last I checked, I'm not Biden and so I'm not panicking about "loosing" voters.
So you're not critiquing 3rd party voters for spoiling their vote and letting Trump take the white house? What other reason would you disagree with voting 3rd party?
I just genuinely don't understand the positions of third party voters nor their apologists (I'm looking at you here).
I actually think you're selling yourself short here - I think you do understand, you just disagree with the risk they're willing to take in their pursuit.
What other reason would you disagree with voting 3rd party?
Because it will in no way help achieve any of the things they claim to want.
Which is why I don't understand their position nor those who apologize for them.
Third parties and their voters are just another sideshow in the American three-ring electoral circus, and I genuinely don't understand how people view them as anything other than that.
Because it will in no way help achieve any of the things they claim to want.
this isn't true, it shows there is a real caucus of active votes who are disenfranchised by the two parties. Whenever there is a breakout 3rd party, there is usually a period of policy realignment in the larger caucuses to pull them back in.
What I think you mean is that it doesn't achieve any electoral outcome, especially one that denies office to a fascist asshole we all oppose. And while that's not an outcome anybody really wants, it does provide an opportunity to bring the democrats to the table when they wouldn't ordinarily be willing, which makes threatening to do so particularly effective this cycle.