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Michigan Republican congressman suggests nuking Gaza, ending humanitarian aid
(www.detroitnews.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2024
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politics
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Evan McMullin's vote total in Minnesota in the 2016 Presidential election was larger than Hillary Clinton's margin of victory. Gary Johnson's vote total was almost 3 times McMullin's total. Johnson's vote total was larger than Clinton's margin in Colorado, too. If it weren't for third-party voters, Clinton would've had an even worse electoral college drubbing. (Perhaps this is the case in other states, too. Those are the two that I know off-hand.) Much has been made about how Jill Stein's vote total in Wisconsin in 2016 was higher than Clinton's margin of defeat, but without any 3rd party candidates, she would've lost by even more.
In 2020, Jo Jorgensen's vote total in Wisconsin was larger than Biden's margin of victory, as well as in Minnesota, Arizona, and Georgia. Her vote total in Pennsylvania was very close to Biden's margin of victory there. Without 3rd party candidates, Biden would've lost in 2020.
This article is about Rep. Tim Walberg, who blew out Democratic Party challenger Bart Goldberg in 2022. The 3rd party candidates in that race were from the Libertarian and U.S. Taxpayers parties. Without them, Walberg's margin of victory would've been greater.
It's absolutely true that voting third party is a really dumb strategy that will never achieve anything good and could conceivably allow for worse outcomes. It's also true that this potentiality is way overblown because of ineffective Democratic politicians using third parties as an excuse for their pathetic underperformance.
People freaking out about third parties having a spoiler effect are basically making the case for an alternative voting system like Ranked Choice. Oh a spoiler effect exists? Good point, let's fix it. Thanks for bringing it up! Very helpful of you to point that out for me.
I get why Republicans hate more democracy, but what is the excuse for the blue states? Maine and Alaska have done away with first past the post voting, why hasn't yours yet? The Republicans don't control every single one of the states still using FPTP.
Back in the mid -1990s, an outfit called the New Party tried to remedy the issue by a different angle, called fusion voting. That's a practice which lets more than one party nominate a candidate, and the candidate's name appears more than once on the ballot. That way, different parties can team up, eliminating the spoiler effect, and the winning candidate knows from whence their support comes.
You'd think that the Democrats would be all about that? Think again. Minnesota's state law bans fusion, and the Supreme Court held that the ban does not violate the 1st Amendment right of freedom of association, on the ground that the state has a compelling interest in preventing electoral chaos. That's patently ridiculous, as New York allows it without issue. The DFL could change the law in Minnesota, but they still have not. The New Party subsequently disbanded, and only one former affiliate (Progressive Dane) is still active.
The two major parties work along the same lines to hinder voters to protect their own power, and this is only one example. But I still think of that case when people insist that 3rd parties should build their base in state and local races. That's when I learned that, at the bottom line, the Democratic Party cares more about its power and prerogatives than what's good for the country. Just like the GOP.