Stay Mad, Tankies

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1236 points –
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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-administration-approves-controversial-alaska-oil-drilling-projec-rcna74679

He lied about student loan forgiveness.

He has us barreling towards WWIII and has destroyed our reputation on a global scale with our support of genocide in Palestine.

I got a question for you though. Same one you were asked two replies ago.

Do you think that the Republicans are better?

I think the Green party is better, that's why I vote for it. Google "democracy" and find out why!

Let me put it this way.

Right now, no one knows your chosen third-party candidate exists. Let's suppose you, personally, set out to change that. Let's suppose you're the best campaign manager ever, and that you and your friends lead the best grassroots campaign in history, so much so that come November you've convinced everyone who would have voted third party and two-thirds of the people who would have voted for Biden to vote for your candidate instead.

Let's suppose that, had you done nothing, the vote breakdown will be the same in 2024 as it was in 2020. Biden got 51.3% of the popular vote, Trump got 46.8%, and that leaves just under 2% who voted third party. In 2024, thanks to your heroic efforts, the green party candidate gets 36.2% of the vote and Biden gets 17.1%, but oh no -- Trump wins by a landslide because Trump supporters, who care not for your left-of-center politics, stuck by their guy and gave him 46% of the vote again, and in first-past-the-post voting, that's all that matters! Your heroic efforts to get your message out about your better candidate only resulted in splitting the vote and ensuring Trump would win!

In 2024, thanks to your heroic efforts, the green party candidate gets 36.2% of the vote and Biden gets 17.1%, but oh no – Trump wins by a landslide because Trump supporters, who care not for your left-of-center politics, stuck by their guy and gave him 46% of the vote again, and in first-past-the-post voting, that’s all that matters! Your heroic efforts to get your message out about your better candidate only resulted in splitting the vote and ensuring Trump would win!

This would be the greatest accomplishment for the working class in American history if it happened. The Greens would then start to win congressional seats, and being the process of taking over the government like the Morena party just did in Mexico.

It's also completely impossible. A campaign that could convince two thirds of Biden voters to switch would shatter every record for a grassroots campaign (heck, even a corporate backed campaign) that had ever been set, by orders of magnitude. You are not going to convince a statistically significant number of people to switch their vote, especially not between now and November.

I also feel like you're missing the part where even if you DID accomplish that, Trump would still win the presidency! If you vote third party you might as well not vote!

Especially given how slim the win margins were in 2020 and 2016, I'm not convinced that Biden will win if we don't all vote for him. I hate the DNC as much as anyone else does, but if you don't want a person who openly plans to abuse his Presidential powers to punish his opponents for daring to prosecute him for a crime he committed, you only have one choice.

It’s also completely impossible. A campaign that could convince two thirds of Biden voters to switch would shatter every record for a grassroots campaign (heck, even a corporate backed campaign) that had ever been set, by orders of magnitude. You are not going to convince a statistically significant number of people to switch their vote, especially not between now and November.

You're the one that made this ridiculous argument in the first place. I am expressing democracy by supporting and growing the party I agree with the most.

I came up with a ridiculous, hyperbolic example that would still result in a victory for Trump to demonstrate that no amount of effort from third party voters would sway the election, even if they could all agree on who the best third party candidate was. Apparently hardcore leftists are so dense you thought I was saying it could actually happen.

But thank you for your honesty. Please, support your third party candidate. I'd love to see them grow, truly. But I sincerely hope you don't think they actually have a chance, not while the people who operate the DNC are breathing.

You're the reason Trump is winning, because you refused to criticize Biden and the Dems, and not grow another party as an option.