Voting third party is irredeemably hopeless.

[jazzimov]

53. as you state, there is a "3rd party"

As it stands right now, there are only 2 viable parties.

In other words, if you feel the Democratic is not "Liberal" enough you can vote for a more Liberal party, but you reduce the chances of a Liberal candidate being elected. By extension, although you are voting for a "more Liberal" candidate your vote doesn't really matter. This is what we ran into in the 2000 "Selection". I don't care about "butterfly" ballots or "dimpled chads" - if there had been a run-off between the 2, Gore would have won.

9/11 would never have happened. The CIA would have stopped it quietly, and some people would be complaining about how the CIA over-stepped it's bounds - but it would never have happened. We would not have had the Afghanistan War. We would not have had the Iraq War. Things wouldn't be "perfect" by any means, but we would be complaining about much more trivial things other than War.

I am not against 3rd Party candidates. I am against the way that our current system supports Mainstream Candidates against the will of the people.

Polls may show that people may be more "Liberal". But, the difference is when we vote. If 30% vote for a Liberal candidate, and another 30% vote for a different Liberal candidate, but 40% vote for a single Conservative Candidate - guess who's going to win?

That is reality. I don't like it, but that is what we have to work with.