Voting Third Party Isn't the Answer. Join the Party.
Sure, voting third party might produce a feeling of purity and moral superiority, but if we really want things to change, we need to infiltrate the establishment.
In four months, people will be heading to the polls again in what will be one of the most, if not the most, consequential midterm election in recent history.
On the ballot is nothing short of democracy itself.
Women’s reproductive freedoms, gun legislation, education, criminal justice reform, the environment, the economy, privacy, foreign policy, immigration, taxes, healthcare, civil rights, the Supreme Court, Social Security, Medicare, domestic terrorism, federal courts, the rule of law, the Ukraine war, and even voting itself, are all up for grabs if republicans regain control of the House of Representatives and/or the Senate.
The election’s outcome will determine the 2024 presidential election.
Every election cycle there bubbles to the surface complaints about our two-party system.
Many argue both the Democratic and republican parties are too irredeemably corrupt to expect any changes.
They claim both parties “are the same;” voting for either is a “lesser of two evils.” Therefore, “voting for a third party” is the only logical “solution.”
According to the Mueller Report, these are talking points that came out of the Russian-linked Internet Research Agency troll farm that sowed discord during the 2016 elections and helped Donald Trump into the White House, and were nearly successful again in 2020.
After all, some claim, if enough of us vote third party, we might elect another Abraham Lincoln, who received only 40 percent of the popular vote for the newly formed republican party back in 1860.
Romanticizing the outsider seems to be part of the American ethos.
We adore people who challenge the system.
Many countries practice parliamentary systems, where multiple political parties hold seats.
But like it or not, at the end of the day, the United States practices a first-past-the-post, winner-take-all electoral system, relegating third-party candidates—particularly those seeking the presidency—to the status of “spoilers.”
We don’t have to like it.
It’s just the way it is.
It’s why Bernie Sanders did not run for president as an Independent or Socialist.
It’s why Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), were elected on the Democratic party line, not Socialist.
It’s why DSA-endorsed candidates all over the country are running as Democrats.
It’s why there has never been a Green Party member in Congress.
Even though the Democratic party is the party of working Americans, committed to strengthening the middle class and lifting up the poor, let’s face it, getting in bed with Wall St., big tech, big pharma, and the military industrial complex isn’t what most Americans want.
While it might seem appealing to maintain our sanity, checking out isn’t the answer.
It only emboldens republicans, who absolutely do not want us to vote, who win when Democratic voter turnout is low.
Since it is one fewer vote for the Democrat, a third-party vote is essentially a vote for a republican.
So what do we do?
How do we get the Democratic party to lean more progressive?
From inside.
Every American state and territory has a Democratic party, as does each of those state’s counties; each of those county committees is comprised of local municipal committees that nominate candidates.
They all work in tandem, starting at the local level, to write the party’s ticket.
From local town council to town justice, to county legislature, county executive, state legislature, governorships, all the way up to Congress—all require endorsements at the local level.
Anyone planning on running for elected office must be prepared to present him or herself to local committee members for support.
There’s no chance of success without it.
Joining your local Democratic committee is easy, free, and empowering.
It gives us a front-row seat in the electoral process, putting us common folk in touch with politicians on a personal, one-on-one level.
If you’re someone passionate about climate change legislation and are frustrated about all the dithering as the world burns, you can have a say in the candidates with the most effective climate policies.
If it’s Medicare for all you want, support and help nominate the candidates who advocate for it.
If the Supreme Court’s recent draconian fiats have you raving mad, recruit and support candidates committed to upholding democracy.
Opportunities abound to volunteer with campaigns, text or call voters, work the polls on election day, attend town halls and fundraisers.
All are better than sitting on the sidelines throwing rocks at “the establishment,” complaining about nothing changing.
Getting inside the Democratic party is how we make it more progressive.
Yet, of course, we still have several anachronisms baked into the system hamstringing much of the changes that need to be made.
One of them is the Electoral College.
While it only applies to the presidential election, the Electoral College nonetheless has allowed into the White House five presidents who lost the popular vote.
Just in this century alone, we have had two republican presidents, both of whom lost the popular vote.
The Democratic presidents have not.
This might seem out of our sphere of influence, but it isn’t.
Getting Congress to amend the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College is virtually impossible.
But there’s another way.
It’s called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPV), a multi-state agreement that would guarantee the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote also wins in the Electoral College.
It would ensure “one person, one vote.”
As of last year, 16 states with a combined 195 electoral votes have been enacted it into law.
Each square on the map below represents one electoral vote out of a national total of 538, according to the 2020 census.
Image credit: nationalpopularvote.com. Map design (various versions) courtesy of Craig Barratt, Jeff Pfoser, and Victor-Bobier
Another 75 electoral votes are all that are needed to render the Electoral College history.
This requires electing candidates amenable to the national popular vote.
And it falls on us to get them in office.
Republicans have figured this out.
That’s why so many QAnon conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, and proto-fascists are infiltrating the republican party at all levels—school boards, secretaries of state, and elected state and federal offices.
Don’t vote third party.
Don’t sit it out.
As progressive talk show host and author Thom Hartmann urges his audience at the close of each show, “Get out there. Get active. Tag! You’re it.”