Don’t Fall for the Third-Party Trick

jordanlund@lemmy.worldmod to politics @lemmy.world – 496 points –
Don’t Fall for the Third-Party Trick
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"Progressives should not make the same mistake that Ernst Thälmann made in 1932. The leader of the German Communist Party, Thälmann saw mainstream liberals as his enemies, and so the center and left never joined forces against the Nazis. Thälmann famously said that 'some Nazi trees must not be allowed to overshadow a forest' of social democrats, whom he sneeringly called 'social fascists.'

After Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933, Thälmann was arrested. He was shot on Hitler’s orders in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944."

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Yup. We need ranked choice/instant runoff voting first.

Approval Voting is even better.

Literally any voting system other than the one we use is an improvement.

Yeah, ranked choice already seems to have a lot of momentum, and would fix a lot. That counts more than theoretical perfection that may not even exist in the real world.

I think people just want the emotional satisfaction of submitting a vote that says "this is my preferred person"

I second Approval Voting. STAR as well, but perhaps slightly less intuitive.

That's why one should always vote for Democrats who support voting system reform.

Are we talking about the same Democrats that sued to keep ranked choice boating off the DC ballot this year? or the Democrats that chose to keep ranked choice voting that had already been passed by voters off the Alexandria VA ballot?

I interpreted it as “vote only for those democrats who support voting reform,” but it could also be sarcasm.

We need the presidency first. We need a majority in both houses first. We need a supermajority in the senate first. We need a 2/3 majority in the senate first. We need to completely overhaul the voting system first.

There's always something we need to do first. It's right there on the timetable. Timetable subject to change. Offer void in red states.

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