So you’re not voting for Johnson because he “has no chance”? I feel like if everyone who didn’t vote 3rd party because of that, actually voted for who they believed was best for the job, our 2 party system would slowly fade.
No, I’m not voting for Johnson because:
1. He’s not really that great on foreign policy, the drug war, and, to a lesser extent, civil liberties.
2. (And this is the bigger reason.) He can’t win. Now, I don’t say this for the reasons you’re thinking. I say it because the two party system isn’t a chance occurrence: It’s an inevitable byproduct of the way our voting system is set up.
For third parties to be viable, we need a constitutional change — not just for everyone to vote their consciences. Consider: If 33% of people in a state voted Libertarian, 33% voted Republican, and 34% voted Democrat, the Democratic candidate gets 100% of the Electoral College votes. If it’s a congressional election, he or she gets 100% of the Senate or House seat, as the case may be. This is how our voting works.
If we had a proportional representation system, as do many other countries, multiple parties would undoubtedly flourish. Wikipedia says it well: ”[Proportional representation] systems tend to produce a proliferation of political parties, while single member districts encourage a two-party system.” I’m ALL for having a whole bunch of parties. I think that would be awesome. More people could vote for candidates who really represent them, and we could have all kinds of diverse coalitions around different issues and stuff. But the idea that we’ll get a multi-party system in America without larger structural change is unrealistic. I wish that weren’t the case. But it simply is.
