StuStiltman wrote:Best thing about living in a super blue state (regarding voting) is that it truly doesn't matter who you vote for. No matter what, mn will give up its votes for Hillary. Great for those of us who want hillary to win, bad for those of us who want trump to win. But, theres a silver lining, if you (as I will) throw your vote away for a 3rd party, you can, with no guilt, do so. I'm free to throw my vote away to the most obscure party on the ballot and know that in no way did I have an impact on the election, since Hillary's getting our vote anyways.
It isn't throwing your vote away. Voting third party is the only way your vote counts if you don't live in a swing state.
It's not counted like votes are in the electoral college. It's a 'popular' vote count for third parties. Their goal is to get 5% of the popular vote in order to get federal campaign financing.
If people in this country weren't so phucking stupid we'd have a lot more party options.
When five people are sitting at a table and are asked their opinion on an issue the discussion will always be relatively cordial. If someone is an asshole at least two of the other four will group together to assert they're doing as much and make them fall back into the line of civility.
When two people are asked about their stance on an issue it's human nature to become adversial and take a "us versus them" attitude for the side your opinion represents. Your goal becomes to beat your opponent more so than find a mutually agreeable solution to the issue. It is inevitable it becomes Bloods versus Crips or Vikings versus Packers...where you're rooting for a side and picking a team instead of discussing the issue.
A representative republic (what for some reason is called a democracy in this country) was never intended and should never be intended to be a two party system. The two parties we have ensured their control and dual monopoly (duopoly???) a long time ago. It's the lone issue they can always agree on. Hence 5% for federal campaign funding and 15% polling to get into the televised debates. Ross Perot will almost assuredly represent the only time in my life a third candidate is sharing the stage with the other big two dbags.
Federal funding should be at 2% and anyone that can poll at 5% should get into the debates.
Nader all those years wasn't running to win. He was running to get 5% and thus establish the Green Party as a real party that is entitled to funding. The first inevitable hurdle that needs to be cleared on a parties way to relevance and credibility.
If people in non-swing states, like MN, would pledge to vote the highest polling third party be it Libertarian or Green, as long as the polling for the big two stays outside the margin for error we would have a lot more viable options.
As much as I'd love to say I voted Trump, unless it gets within the margin of error, I'll stick to my self made pledge to vote for the highest polling third party candidate...
...as I always do.
