Voting third party is irredeemably hopeless.

[drm604]

44. They keep repeating it because it is true.

Whether we like it or not it is true.

There is an answer. Voting third party is not that answer. Under our current electoral system, it won't work. Mathematically it won't work because of the way the system is designed. I don't like it. You don't like it. Regardless, it's true.

The answer isn't to waste time and resources and votes on a non-viable party that will end up being a spoiler and throwing the election to the party that thinks the least like you.

The answer is take over one of the existing parties from the bottom up, ideally the one that is closest to your own beliefs. Run for election as a local Democratic Committee Person. Find people who think like you and have them do the same in other precincts in your state. Do this all over the country and eventually we will have change. It takes time and effort but has the virtue of being mathematically possible within the current system, whereas voting third party is almost always a losing proposition.

I will keep saying this regardless of how many people use phrases like "self-defeating" because it is not self-defeating. Beating your head against the wall of an electoral system that won't allow third parties is what's self-defeating. What's NOT self-defeating is working within the current system and taking over the existing framework and resources of an existing party.

Maybe one day we can gain enough power to change the system to a parliamentary system that is amenable to more than two parties. But the only peaceful way there is through the current system.