this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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I am so so divided on if I should vote for biden or not. I wanna vote third party to at least do something or should I just stay home and protest and advocate where I can? Thoughts?

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I'm biased, but think you should vote for Biden. I voted for Nader I'm 2000 because I lived in Massachusetts at the time and it didn't matter there but I still regret it on the principle.

Biden is too centrist for my liking but the alternative is total chaos. I am super progressive but did vote for McCain in 2000 for the primary and never voted for Ted Kennedy!

[–] prunerye@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago

Do what you want and don't be guilted by fear-mongerers on social media. If you want to vote third party, you should.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

I wanna vote third party

Why

[–] gutternonsense@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Astroturfing early bc of "shocking" losses in 2023 elections?

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[–] Mister_Rogers@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

America (and alot of countries to be fair) need ranked choice voting systems so damn badly for this exact reason (if you're unfamiliar with it, a simple version is that basically you rank your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pick, your first pick gets 3 points, 2nd pick 2 points, 3rd pick 1 point. At the end they tally up the points, and the party with the most wins).

Singular vote systems trend naturally towards 2 party systems often, whereas with a ranked choice system, far right people would vote for far-right-person that loads of people hate, far left people would vote for far-left-person that loads of people hate, but since almost everyone would put moderate-person as their 2nd choice that everyone kind of doesn't like, they would be the one to get elected in this case. It's like the old saying, a good compromise is when nobody is happy. That's what's needed to move away from extremist politics, but without a ranked choice system, it's not going to happen any time soon.

*this is grossly simplified, and there are examples of multi-party systems that don't use ranked choice, and there's many many caveats besides when talking so simply about something as complex as electoral politics, but the fundamental point stands.

[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't know what the rules are in the US regarding a protest vote, but that's what I do in the UK as long as the candidates I have to choose from (local or general) all make my skin crawl. If you don't represent my interests, you don't get my vote, and neither red nor blue team even pretend to care about people like me at this point, so:

https://www.votenone.org.uk/protest_votes_count.html

Oh, and just to pre-empt any "you're why people like Trump get in", no you. The system is literally designed this way -

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/22/american-democracy-was-never-designed-to-be-democratic-eric-holder-our-unfinished-march-nick-seabrook-one-person-one-vote-jacob-grumbach-laboratories-against-democracy

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/

https://truthout.org/articles/fascism-is-possible-not-in-spite-of-liberal-capitalism-but-because-of-it/

https://nyanarchist.wordpress.com/2019/01/23/scratch-a-liberal-a-fascist-bleeds-how-the-so-called-middle-class-has-enabled-oppression-for-centuries/

[–] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Vote your conscience. Vote third party if you can't stand the Democrats no more. Vote Democrat if the Republicans winning is too much for you to handle. Which ever let's you sleep best at night is the correct answer.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Vote Democrat if the Republicans winning is too much for you to handle.

The Republicans winning should be too much for anybody with a conscience to handle.

[–] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's the great thing about options, we can differ on them.

[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trump has already stated that he'd go after news sources that he doesn't like if he wins the next election. So, if you like the ability to differ on opinions, as you seem to, then you cannot tolerate Trump to win, nor any of the other leading Republicans who refuse to denounce him.

So, yes, I agree, that is the great thing about opinions, that we can differ on them, but we can only do so as long as Republicans are not in power.

[–] DAMunzy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey, I get that but it's still an opinion. Someone else might believe differently. The might believe that it's time to move to a third party and that's ok. Others believe that electoral politics does nothing and that working outside elections is the only thing that works. That's ok too.

No one should feel that they have to vote Democrat especially since they still do things that are unconscionable: vote to support a bloated military budget and no towards universal healthcare, support genocide in Gaza, Flint, Michigan (no criminal liability and it took 9 years to get the lead to acceptable levels), and many more examples.

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