Originally Posted by
foxtrot
For those perpetually whining about wanting a third viable candidate on a ballot.
I have to question if you are incapable of doing fractional math.
Lets say you have an election. Lets simplify it, and say you have three basic issues that people care about. X, Y, and Z.
Now, lets take a two viable candidates, 1, and 2.
Now, lets take a three candidate system.
Why? Because viewpoints are not divided on thirds. Two candidates will be politically close in the spectrum. When that happens, neither can prevail. If people can't understand that, I'm not going to try to explain it further. This is about as easy of a concept as the whole "guns aren't going to spontaniously kill people by themselves". Nonetheless, perpetual whining.
If you want to have a VIABLE election, work within one of the existing parties to get the candidate of your choice. If you want to guarantee a win for a minority opinion candidate, well then, by all means, get your third candidate on the ballot so the winner will ALWAYS be what you don't want. But hell, at least you can have a chip on your back for (unsuccessfully) always voting for your guy.
It's not a matter of "oh the R would have to try harder to overcome the.....". When you have a solid 40% moonbat-lets-be-socialists-and-give-me-welfare-vote, if you add a "viable" third party candidate to that? No matter what utopian imagination you have, neither candidate would ever exceed 40% of the vote to overcome the moonbats. And the moonbats will never "splinter" off. Libertarians, conservatives, etc., they are all viewed as the "enemy".
So, you get a chip on your shoulder for voting for your guy, while in fact, guaranteeing a win for "moonbat socialism" every go around if your "wish" is granted. I live in a place called REALITY. I don't chase dreams that are utopic, unfounded in reality or logic. A "third" party candidate is that utopic, illogical, unrealistic dream. The reality is, if you ever get it, you've succeeded in shooting yourself in the foot, nothing more.
Work to get who you want nominated. Quit bitching and talking about a happy perfect word where food grows itself, money rains from the sky, and third party candidates can be elected.
That is all.