PHOENIX (AP) – The 2024 presidential election is drawing an unusually robust field of independent, third party and long shot candidates hoping to capitalize on Americans’ ambivalence and frustration over a likely rematch between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump.
Yup, a bunch of people want to push third party candidates.
They either ignore the fact that under FPtP (First Past the Post), a third party candidate is always a spoiler candidate, or they’ve been paid off by conservatives to weaken the chances of Democrats doing the bare minimum and holding on to power that they should have been actually using.
Which bring up the second evil of FPtP, as long as conservatives are batshit crazy and openly embracing fascism, all the Democrats have to do, it not be conservatives… And sadly, that’s a very high bar for them.
The fix to all of this is, of course, to ditch FPtP voting. My current favorite replacement is called STAR. It’s about the single best single winner voting system ever created. (another link)
For anyone else who finds voting systems fascinating, there’s an entire wiki devoted to just that. I’ll admit to having read most of it over the last few years. I might need better hobbies.
tl;dr Our system of government sucks and math says you need to vote for Biden.
I hate it, too, but them’s the facts.
I was never gonna vote for him, but if I had considered, genocide is my mine in the sand.
That’s the neat part: You get genocide no matter what you choose. Even if you vote third party you’ll have a “president” you “elected” that kills people all over the globe. Even Mr. Hope & Change came up with the double-tap.
Welcome to being a citizen of a dying empire. Maybe in a 100 years your children will get to vote for someone they actually like, after this decrepit, undemocratic government splinters and falls on its face like all the other presidential republics in this hemisphere
Too bad so many people suck at math.
I blame No Child Left Behind.
Republicans are pushing third party candidates HARD. If Biden doesn’t get 270 electoral votes the Republican House appoints the president. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingent_election
I recall learning about STAR a while ago, and I agree that both that FPtP sucks ass, and STAR is vastly better. All we’d need to do is get it instituted to replace FPtP, which is the real hurdle.
Or you ditch direct presidential elections altogether, vote for congress with a proportional vote and let them decide who’s gonna be president. That way you’ll force the (now more than 2) parties to form coalitions and cooperate.