"Progressives should not make the same mistake that Ernst ThƤlmann made in 1932. The leader of the German Communist Party, ThƤlmann saw mainstream liberals as his enemies, and so the center and left never joined forces against the Nazis. ThƤlmann famously said that āsome Nazi trees must not be allowed to overshadow a forestā of social democrats, whom he sneeringly called āsocial fascists.ā
After Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933, ThƤlmann was arrested. He was shot on Hitlerās orders in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944."
These posts are always missing the point. Voters will vote third party. Your moral claims wonāt change that, but your candidateās policies could. Also, most of us donāt live in swing states. Donāt pretend our vote matters when it never did.
Voters will but they canāt do so under the delusion that a) they are making any sort of change or b) that they arenāt hurting the actually viable candidate closest to them.
The winner of the election in every state will be the Democrat or the Republican, full stop. You can choose to help or harm the one closest to your opinion.
This is the type of delusion that eventually leads to fascism any way
āHey donāt try to change anything because obviously only one of two people can winā
āHey you have to change things from the inside of the party, you canāt just have a third party even though every half decent western government has multiple partiesā
āIf you donāt want to vote for a genocidal enabler of capitalism and class separation paid for by the same people who pay for trump/hitler, then youāre voting for trump/Hitlerā
āYou have to bring the super nuts authoritarian fascists into the group, and exclude the actual left wing people who are screaming for basic decency and rights for everyoneā
āOh no how on earth did the crazy right wingers take over the entire country who could have seen this coming? Itās totally not the fault of a governmental party that canāt sort their shit out and take on policies that a majority of itās constituents want, but instead keeps sliding as far to the right as possible every time they have to moveā
The delusion is thinking you can change things with a single election. If you donāt like the two party system (and I donāt) then you must get more involved in politics than voting for the president. You would need to elect principled progressives at every level of government, fight against fascism at every opportunity, and diligently protect the progress we have made.
Voting for a third party candidate is like showing up to a birthday party as theyāre lighting the candles and complaining that nobody asked you about the decorations. It doesnāt matter if your objections are valid, youāve missed the window to do anything about it.