Libertarians

[Art]

I read a little article recently on takeaways from the election. Most of it was nothing special except for one point. The fellow said that Libertarians, who would never vote Democrat in a million years, may have tilted the election to Biden. If you look at the vote right now in Arizona and Georgia, the Libertarian vote would more than put Donald Trump over the top. Full disclosure; I am a Libertarian leaning Conservative and Like him I have voted Libertarian a couple of times in local or statewide races for positions like judges in odd circumstances where either there wasn't a Republican on the ballot but a Libertarian was running against a Dem or when I found both to be really distasteful for some reason and it wouldn't have changed the balance of power in Texas. If I had voted Libertarian in Texas in this years presidential election it wouldn't have mattered because of the margin of victory, but what if it had been a Senate race that was very close, or if I lived in Georgia?

The question is: if your primary allegiance is to a third party at what point do you abandon it to put a less pure but better for you national candidate over the top ? On the left an example is the 2000 election; in which Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, siphoned off enough of the liberal vote to give George Bush the win over Al Gore.

[lyman]

while I understand the desire to vote for who you think is best, until we have a viable 3rd party it is just a vote for one of the other candidates,


and they have been proven to be shills in the past for the D candidate in some races

[Roadkingtrax]

Party loyalty is archaic thinking really.

Who's best for the job, the back and forth will always be there. For most people it boils down to one or two core wedge issues. Even then...you can't trust any SOB in office.

[togor]

Ralph Nader. Jill Stein. Ross Perot. It happens.

[Vern Humphrey]

while I understand the desire to vote for who you think is best, until we have a viable 3rd party it is just a vote for one of the other candidates,


and they have been proven to be shills in the past for the D candidate in some races

Our system works against Third Parties.

In countries with a parliamentary system, the Prime Minister is a member of Parliament, leader of the Majority Party. Small parties can have a lot of clout by combining with larger parties to form a coalition government, and put them over the top, so the larger party's leader becomes the Prime Minister. And of course, the small party gets something in return.

In the United States, the President and VP are elected on their own, so small parties do not have that leverage and are pretty much written off by the larger parties.