this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
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Contextually, we are discussing the presidential election. That's what the meme above is about. 49 of 50 states are FPTP. Alaska is the only one using RCV. Since Alaska's total population is 800k out of 345 million US citizens, the discussion of voting pragmatically for president affects 99.8% of Americans.
In Alaska, which does have RCV for president starting this year, people should fully vote for their ideal candidate, as long as they rank the rest as well so RCV works.
So overall, for every 500 Americans who read this thread and now opt to vote pragmatically, it might adversely affect 1 Alaskan, who may vote pragmatically instead of ideally. That's not a perfect ideal for those rare Alaskans, but it's still reasonable.
Right but if only a handful of swing states actually matter here so lets take it a step further, why waste effort telling people from like california or texas not to vote 3rd party because, lets be honest, the margins aren't big enough for third parties to matter there.
Like I feel like its both more convincing and more honest to just say "Don't vote third party where the spoiler effect is a concern" or "don't vote third party in swing states"
It doesn't matter until it matters. Voting fecklesly for a 3rd party in just one large election every 4 years has not and will not change anything meaninfully. You need changes like Alaska's, which based on state population size, was like changing a city ordinance. It will take a lot more effort to change over to RCV in basically any other state. A kind of effort fringe candidates should be applying non stop.
The issue with "well just do it in non swing states" is that you can't contain this empty, contrarian gesturing to just those states without the candiates opting to not put themselves on the ballot in others. If they did that intentionally, only applying to be on the ballot in non swing states, while also actively campaigning for RCV, then I would fully support it. None do.
The reality is the people like RFK Jr and Jill stein are intentional spoilers, heavily subsidized by right wing billionaires and foreign powers to throw the election in those swing states. You can follow the money and see it in action. Until they seriously apply the above efforts, that's all they will ever be, and they don't deserve even token gestures of support.
The problem here is that the 2 party FPTP system is propping up the republican minority party creating a catch 22 where in most countries the republican party would split between resulting in a centrist party and a "MAGA" party. Like if you look at the UK that's kind of what happened. But here in the US its created a zombie republican party controlled by fascists.
Like the fact that more states have not adopted viable ranked choice voting methods and constrained the electoral college system is currently why Trump even stands a chance today. The people deciding the 2024 election are like begrudging centrist-leaning republicans who are being given two choices they don't like and we'd all be better off if they could just get like a house rep isntead and didn't decide the president.
Yes, that is an accurate representation of the issue of FPTP.
What does voting for Jill Stein or RFK Jr do to change that in 49 of 50 states?
I'm saying that the problem here is that the problem isn't "Third parties" its "The Spoiler Effect".
You might think that's a distinction without a difference but if you say "We need to eliminate 3rd parties" that's a very different solution from "we need to eliminate the spoiler effect"
PS: Fuck that moron Jill Stein because she's only made this shit harder to talk about