Antiboyscout wrote:Ahhh...
The accusations of Fascism and the demeaning of third parties.
Do me a favor and never change. You are a poster child for the failings of the Left right now
As far as the accusations of fascism are concerned, if the Right doesn't like the label, it shouldn't fit it so well.
As to third parties...
That's a complicated topic, and rather off-topic, but since we're already off-topic...
I have no inherent objection to alternative parties, though I do think that any system is going to tend to default towards two major factions, because you need at least close to a majority to get anything done in a democracy. Even in parliamentary systems with many parties in the legislature, you'll generally need a coalition with a majority to accomplish much.
That said, if a smaller party actually broke out of the fringe and stood a real chance of accomplishing something productive, I'd gladly back it. It might surprise you, for example, to know that here in Canada, I spent much of the last spring as a volunteer for the British Columbia provincial Green Party. Even in American politics, I have no loyalty to the Democratic Party except insofar as the Democratic Party, flawed as it is, is the most effective means we currently have of advancing democratic and social democrat principles. If a better option that was actually viable presented itself, I'd certainly consider it. But I'm not going to fall into the fallacy of embracing a third party option
simply because its not one of the two big parties and "Both parties are exactly the same false equivalency nonsense", nor do I accept the usual excuse of third partiers that "We would totally win if the big parties weren't conspiring to keep us down".
The Greens under Jill Stein and the Libertarians under Gary Johnson were the only two remotely notable alternative parties in the last US election, and guess what-
Jill Stein and Gary Johnson were both shitty candidates. Even by the standards of a race that included Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the top spots.
In other words, you don't score points with me simply by
being a third party. Give me a third party that actually serves some purpose other than splitting the progressive vote, and I'll consider backing it.
Edits: And again, I'll point to how Trump openly encouraged the Bernie or Bust people. Third parties have become a useful tool for a major party to employ "divide and conquer" against its opposition. If I supported a third party, I would simply be encouraging the Left to squander its efforts on infighting rather than focus them against a common opponent and in support of common causes.
And in the current political climate in the US, the stakes are too high to do that.
This is not to say, of course, that the Democratic Party does not have problems that require reform. But I've got to laugh (because otherwise I might cry) at "progressives" who think they have a better shot of getting the policies and candidates they want by going third party than by working within the Democratic primary process, unbalanced though it is.
Bernie Sanders got over 45% of the primary vote, starting out as a virtual unknown against a heavily favoured, extremely wealthy, globally famous, and exceptionally well-connected opponent who's victory was considered a forgone conclusion by most. Moreover, his support was disproportionately with the younger voters of the party (ie the future of the party, if they don't throw it all away in a childish fit of sour grapes), and subsequent events have vindicated him. The progressives have every chance of taking control of the DNC in the long run,
if we're willing to work at it.
But no, let's vote Green or Libertarian instead. Because dividing our efforts between various parties that would need a miracle to break 5% of the vote is definitely more likely to get us what we want than trying to get another five or ten percent of the vote in the next Democratic primary...
And apologies for continuing to add more edits to this post, but again, I can't help but note that it always seems to be Right-wingers telling me, and other liberals and progressives, that we should support third parties.
Huh, I wonder why that is? Forgive me for not taking strategy advice from the opposition. I'm sure they have our best interests at heart... Just like when some of them told us that Trump's "victory" proved we needed to throw the rights of women and minorities under the bus if we wanted to win.