There are no longer any "third party" candidates.

[Atticus]

If you are not running as a Democrat, you're running as a Trumpster.

[TheFarseer]

1. How many times do I have to see this same post?

Do you not understand the republicans say the same thing and it’s equally true? “If you’re voting third party, you’re voting for Hillary”. Try to convince people to vote D with something positive rather than assuming everyone is on team D and some people are just being brats.

[kcr]

2. So, how does the fact that the Republicans say the same thing and it's right

invalidate the point? In fact, the GOP tend to have a very loyal voting base, so it seems like right wingers actually listen. If only the voters on our side would realize the reason they keep seeing this point over and over.

[TheFarseer]

3. Then why do libertarian candidates

Almost always get more votes than the green candidate? Try to appeal to them rather than shame them. People don’t react well to being shamed. It just makes them resentful and less apt to do what you suggest. I recommend going over all the policies Democrats advocate that would help them and possibly all the policies Republicans favor that would hurt them. It won’t be hard to come up with a few good bullet points.

[boston bean]

4. I could give a shit less about people who can't be shamed into voting for our democracy. Screw them.

The stakes are way to high to bend over for jerks who can’t seem to grasp the severity of our circumstance right now.

[TheFarseer]

5. I think that's not unreasonable

Given that we are talking about a very small percentage of the population. My only point is that the R’s have the same issue and it’s not going away for either side so I don’t know why we have to keep screaming about it.

[LanternWaste]

11. You're unable to understand...?

"so I don’t know why we have to keep screaming about it..."

You're unable to understand why people are concerned about and discuss something that both negatively impacts the Democratic party and is ongoing?



Edit: I used the more accurate "concerned about and discuss" rather than the melodramatic pretense, "screaming."

[TheFarseer]

12. I understand the frustration

But as I pointed out, the R’s lose more votes to libertarians than we lose to Greens so at worst it evens out. And secondly, brow beating stubborn people over and over again only turns them off. If people were posting the D’s record on the environment vs. the R’s to appeal to greens, then that would be a good post.

[orangecrush]

9. I agree

completely.

[Atticus]

6. 1.). Can you post a link to a prior "same post"?

2.). I assume that nearly everyone regularly posting on Democratic Underground is "on the D team".

3.) Are you aware that " the Dems have nothing positive to run on" is a right-wing meme?

4.). I wouldn't call those urging a 3rd party "protest vote" in this treacherous political climate brats, but I would call them either fools or trolls.

[TheFarseer]

7. Not literally the same post

1. Don’t be cute. You know this general point is made 1,000 times per day on this site.

2. I guess I was assuming you are making this point away from this site also.

3. I absolutely never said that. Is setting up a straw man the only way you can debate?

4. I feel like they are just on a different team and from time to time they can be persuaded to vote D but you have to remember it takes a different sort of person to identify with a party that never wins-a stubborn person that won’t be shamed into voting a certain way.

[DanTex]

8. There are plenty of other posts if you don't like this one.

But the Greens have now thrown two presidencies to the GOP, and are planning to try and do the same thing again in 2020. So, evidently, the fact that Green party candidacies are pro-GOP spoiler operations is apparently not clear to everyone. Hence the posts.

[JCanete]

10. Actually, a third party existing does not prove anything like that. The fact that they got votes

does not itself prove that had they not been in the race those votes would have gone to the Democrat. I'm not saying some wouldn't have, but obviously some of the voters they are attracting are disaffected by the two-party system, typically, so I'm not sure that a party speaking to them is the reason they didn't come out to vote for Gore or Clinton. If you think the greens are effective at stoking that disaffection...I certainly wouldn't suggest that they have no impact on that, but you can't look at their vote totals and simply apply them to another candidate in a theoretical void of their existence.