this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
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[–] Rosco@sh.itjust.works 36 points 11 months ago (24 children)

I don't know much about US politics, but is Biden the only choice you have besides voting for Trump? There's zero alternatives? I've seen in the comments that people prefer Biden to other democrat candidates, because he already beat Trump already, so it has better chances to beat him again. But realistically, it seems like everyone hates Trump with a burning passion, so any Democrat that is not batshit insane and totally incompetent would beat him, right? Seems like an easy win.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 25 points 11 months ago (15 children)

It's a first past the post system with only two major political parties. That means the choice is either the selected Democrat or the selected Republican, who are elected via a complex primary process that differs from state to state.

Voting third party in the U.S. achieves absolutely nothing. Especially when there are almost never third party choices for lower office, aside from the libertarians and they're nuts. If you are determined to not vote for any Democrats or Republicans, your vote has the same effect as staying home and not voting.

I would love this to change, but I don't foresee that happening anytime soon.

[–] Metatronz@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hey, chin up. If the batshit nuts right wing of the GOP keep going the way they are maybe we'll get a brand spanking new fascist third party. Lol, third party achieved!

Tangent for a moment: I'm kind of curious, if we could somehow encourage more stupidity on the right. Perhaps, the GOP would fracture into two parties.

In the short term, it could give Dems a large say in everything. Bolstered by the fact that the hard right is very performative and not really interested in doing any real work. In the more medium term, maybe that would finally give some freedom to open the door for more Dems and voters to peel off into yet another party.

I guess at that point, the danger is the right would then realize the situation. Rally their fractured party and completely ice out Dems and whatever left party that came out of the above. Multipolar politics at the party level could get really freaking scary too.

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 3 points 11 months ago

I really doubt the GOP splits. As much as the Trump and anti-Trump factions of the party dislike each other, they're stuck together by the evil of strategic voting. We would need a different voting system to allow the existence of a third party that doesn't also act as a spoiler.

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