That was one of the more interesting SOTU addresses I’ve seen. Personally, I think he said most of the things that needed to be said, and he said them reasonably well. I’m sure he’s going to get some flack for attacking Trump directly (though not by name), but I was frankly glad to see it. Doing otherwise makes it seem like it’s just your typical election/political disagreements, but we’re past that now.

  • unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 months ago

    Nah, everyone who says, “don’t vote third party” simply paid attention in their civics class and understands how our electoral system works.

    Independents have won federal offices before, not the presidency, but we have evidence showing that third parties can win elections. However, if two candidates are clear frontrunners, voting for a third party doesn’t positively contribute to the outcome of the election.

    In fact, the data shows that a vote for a minority candidate makes it more likely that the winner of the election will hold views that are actually farther from one’s preferences than if one voted for a majority candidate. This is a big part of the push for states to move to ranked choice voting, so that voters don’t need to make this kind of electoral compromise.

    If you’re in Maine, Alaska, or Hawaii, you may be in luck! Otherwise, you can put your hands over your eyes and yell about the injustice of it all, but it doesn’t change the facts; which is why grownups having political discussions dismiss minority candidates as being irrelevant to the discussion.

    • harderian729@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, I guess between Stalin and Pol Pot you should pick one of them instead of trying something else.

      This is why you people are perpetually losers and why I never take you seriously at this point.