Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently made headlines for calling perennial Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein “predatory” and “not serious.” AOC is right.

Giving voters more choices is a good thing for democracy. But third-party politics isn’t performance art. It’s hard work — which Stein is not doing. As AOC observed: “[When] all you do is show up once every four years to speak to people who are justifiably pissed off, but you’re just showing up once every four years to do that, you’re not serious.”

To be clear: AOC was not critiquing third parties as a whole, or the idea that we need more choices in our democracy. In fact, AOC specifically cited the Working Families Party as an example of an effective third party. The organization I lead, MoveOn, supports their 365-day-a-year efforts to build power for a pro-voter, multi-party system. And I understand third parties’ power to activate voters hungry for alternatives: I myself volunteered for Ralph Nader in 2000, and that experience helped shape my lifelong commitment to people-first politics.


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29 points

I don’t care about the reasoning you make for your actions. We’re talking about the results of those actions.

You will affect the race in one of two ways regardless of what you do. You will either benefit Party A or Party B, those parties being the two largest parties, aka Democrats and Republicans. Non votes and 3rd party votes benefit the smaller party, which is the GOP. This is an absolute fact within a FPTP system, even if you can’t accept it because of the obvious implications.

If you feel the GOP has done more to earn your support, that’s your call. I just think that’s some next level dumbassery.

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-25 points

the only vote that can benefit any party is a vote for that party. don’t spread misinformation.

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16 points

You are incorrect. While a vote for the GOP candidate certainly carries more weight, it doesn’t mean they don’t benefit from non/3rd party votes. That is how FPTP voting works.

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-16 points

they literally cannot benefit from it at all. it’s a vote against them and for another candidate.

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-24 points

Your vote for Harris is stealing a vote from a 3rd party and giving it to Trump.

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17 points

You will affect the race in one of two ways regardless of what you do. You will either benefit Party A or Party B, those parties being the two largest parties, aka Democrats and Republicans.

When a 3rd party becomes larger than the Democratic or Republican party, you would be correct. That is not the case, so you’re still incorrect.

So in your opinion what makes the GOP more deserving of your support compared to the Democrats?

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-15 points

Neither one of them is deserving of support.

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14 points

Only if that third party stood any chance of winning. Which they don’t.

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-10 points

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6 points

If you have to go back 160 years, maybe that should tell you something about how realistic it is.

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