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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?
The structure of how elections in almost all of the US are conducted, with a plurality determining the winner, means that there’s a huge advantage to choosing to vote for somebody who has a big coalition and whose views are less far from your own than the other big coalition.
Let’s look at three examples:
Example 1:
Democrat wins
Example 2:
Election is a tie, with the winner decided by flipping a coin or other game of chance
Example 3:
Republican wins
So long as plurality-take-all is how US elections are run, it makes sense for anybody left-of-center to vote for Biden in the general election.
Getting better policies means not just doing that though, but taking active steps to volunteer for and donate to candidates during primaries, as well as seeking out close house and close senate races in the general election to support Democrats, thereby shifting the balance of power slightly to the left.
More like…
Republicans win because of gerrymandering and the electoral college.
Republicans win because they packed the supreme court and the police support a coup.
Like… Vote Biden for the chance to delay the inevitable, but there will be a fascist coup because they don’t have another choice to maintain power. There’s just too much money behind fascism and police almost universally support it. Figuring out how to vote is less important than figuring out how to undermine fascism after it takes over.
The problem is that in about half the country, you don’t know with certainty whether you will be in a competitive location. I certainly didn’t expect to see Georgia be close last time around.