This is the U.S. Senate we’re talking about. How difficult is it to see the common interest — among Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Greens, Purples, Chartreuses, Socialists, Libertarians, and everyone but George Allen — in preventing a racist wingnut Bush apologist like George Allen from representing Virginia in the U.S. Senate? “Not-George-Allen” leads George Allen 50.7% to 49.3%, a margin that would not trigger a recount; but we’re going to get one, and only because the “Not-George-Allen” vote is split.
The Democratic party in Vermont, with the shoe on the other foot, understands this. They endorsed Bernie Sanders (I) instead of fielding a separate candidate. As a Virginia voter, you owe it to your fellow citizens in Virginia and in the whole country to look at the biggest picture possible, given the reality of how things are right now, not the way we wish they would be.
The reality is that — hopefully not forever, but for now — it’s a binary operation. Walk up to a light switch and make a choice: On or Off. You can’t always predict for a given race whether the third-party vote will be a “message” or or a shot into your own foot, and until there’s instant runoff voting or something like it, the latter possiblity will always exist.
I already know the psychobabble that’s coming…“But you can’t say that all those IG votes, or even a majority, would go to the Democrat if the IG candidate weren’t running? And anyway, the Democrats and Republicans are exactly the same.” I’m sorry, but frankly, now that the evidence is actually in, that is some seriously tired s–t. Bottom line, at the end of the day, how have Greens and Independents and Independent Greens (don’t get them mixed up, OK? Puh-leeze!) been doing since 90,000 Floridians voted Green in 2000? How are we doing on the environment? Public Transportation? Foreign Policy? If anyone really believes we aren’t worse off now by some incredible multiple than we would have been with Al Gore as president — and even worse, believe that Nader’s candidacy had nothing to do with the six years of needless death, negligence, fear-mongering, and despair that we got — well, that kind of denial is pathological.
Third parties need to put their energies into building a power base, by running candidates for state and local government, by advocating for real campaign finance and election reform, and by voting with the national party (guess which one) that is most likely to support those.
And yes, I’m glad I finally got that off my chest.
Third party candidates need to work on Instant Run-Off Voting and Public Campaign Finance.
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Until they achieve those things they will continue to do as you say they do, send a message by shooting themselves in the foot.
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Was it good to have Grace Ross in the race? Certainly. But these groups are just playing at politics and deluding themselves if they think that constantly getting 3 percent of the vote is somehow going to “grow the party” over the long run.
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The sad thing is that the Green Party was a MAJOR player in Public Campaign Finance here in MA. Then they got tired. Hint to Green Party: Learn from Stein’s Campaign and get mobilized over IRV.
Meant to say, “IRV and Public Campaign Finance, PERIOD.”
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Because, as you can tell, I agree with you whole heartedly. There is a role for third party politics in this country, but it starts with the 3rd parties achieving electoral reform: which will not only benefit them, but actually win them some more followers.
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Ever notice, though, how the left fields articulate, intelligent candidates like Ross, Stein, and O’Keefe, while the right sports such crazies as Karla “Small Government is Beautiful” Howell? What’s up with that?
I think electoral reform — as in, we make our elections conform to the standards that international election monitors require of emerging democracies — and campaign finance reform (which, to me, means publicly funded campaigns and no loopholes) benefits not just third parties, but all Democrats, independents, etc.; everyone but parties and candidates that benefit from vote suppression and have deep enough pockets to buy elections (the usual suspects).
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And don’t get me started on right-wing crazies; there’s not enough bandwidth… š
3rd party candidates in MI and MT helped us win those seats. There’s two sides to this coin.
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I did read that the Green candidate in VA last week saw how close the polls were and “considered” dropping out and endorsing…but then decided to stick with it. I do think that the Green Party sometimes works against itself running spoiler candidates who incur the wrath of Democrats who otherwise might be more willing to listen to their pitches. When they run in races like this, they aren’t helping themselves build a base, that’s for sure.
MSNBC breaking news shows that Allen is set to concede today.
Who got us George Bush in the first place, in my opinion.
This is Jack’s total and complete agreement.