Walter Shapiro reflects on his decision in 1968 to vote third-party rather than to vote for Hubert Humphrey. This was, he now sees, a "self-righteous decision to opt out of the two-party system" he made "out of misplaced antiwar passions."
And, of course, his third-party protest vote enabled tricky Dick Nixon, a warmonger if there ever was a warmonger, to gain the White House.
Notice he doesn't mention #thirdparty candidates and perpetuates the myth that all candidates are bought by Israel, while complaining that "all candidates are bought by Israel".
Americans complain but can't be bothered to lift a finger to improve their political situation.
#Polls this far out are meaningless. The dead-enders supporting #ThirdParty candidates still believe their "protest vote" will push the other candidates to reach out to them and their demands.
But as the election nears and those demands are clearly not being met, they abandon their support for candidates who clearly have no chance of winning.
The fact Biden trails in their poll reveals most of them are frustrated #Dems who will return to him. #RFK
"Kennedy consistently polls in the high single digits in national surveys, and the evidence shows him pulling more votes away from Biden than from Trump. A late March Quinnipiac poll found Biden leading Trump by 3 points in a head-to-head matchup. But Trump took a 1-point lead over Biden when third-party candidates such as RFK Junior were added."
Robert Reich says that if we want to stop Trump from regaining the White House, we can share Reich's video explaining who RFKJr is and what he's about in this election: his funding is largely coming from deep-pockets donors close to Trump.
“'That’s right, the Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for President,' Kerry Kennedy said in a speech with President Biden flanked to her right, and 5 siblings behind her.
Kerry Kennedy spoke firmly and clearly, while using the transcendent words of her father, Robert F Kennedy, Jr., to stress the endorsement of Biden."
"Instead of living off MAGA fumes in a race he is unable to win, Sideshow Bob should just drop out.
There is no path to victory for Bob. None. Zero. Zilch.
Of course, Bob’s not in the race to win. He’s in it to steal votes from Biden in a desperate effort to try and help Trump win the election. His campaign admitted as much earlier this week."
"Bob is an egotistical blowhard who has no business running for anything in the first place. No qualifications. No experience. No track record.
And while at the moment Bob’s candidacy might seem to be attracting more Trump voters, his overall “plan” is clear: Try and trick Democrats into believing Bob is a legitimate alternative to Biden by using the Kennedy name—and the RFK moniker (which everyone should stop using)."
"Allies of Donald J. Trump are discussing ways to elevate third-party candidates in battleground states to divert votes away from President Biden, along with other covert tactics to diminish Democratic votes.
They plan to promote the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a 'champion for choice' to give voters for whom abortion is a top issue — and who also don’t like Mr. Biden — another option on the ballot…."
"Any anti-Trump votes RFK Junior pulls away from Biden will only help Trump.
Democracy won by a whisker in 2020. Just 44,000 votes out of more than 10 million cast in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin — less than half of 1 percent — made the difference between the Biden presidency and a tie in the Electoral College that would have thrown the election to the House of Representatives, and hence to Trump."
Hafiz Rashid reports that RFK Jr's NY campaign director Rita Palma says the game plan of the campaign is to benefit Trump: she stated,
“The only way that Trump can even, remote possibility of taking New York is if Bobby is on the ballot. If it’s Trump versus Biden, Biden wins. Biden wins six days, seven days a week. With Bobby in the mix, anything can happen."
But, sure, Biden's old and you need to vote "your conscience," etc.
"Not voting at all, voting 'uncommitted,' or voting 3rd party (RFK, Jr.) gives the election to Trump, who not only wants Gaza eliminated or Ukraine turned over to Russia, but would also end all of the rights we have now that the Republicans haven’t already tried to eliminate.
We must VOTE BLUE all up and down the ballot in every state. Period."
"Anything that erodes the anti-Trump coalition makes it more likely that Trump will prevail. So those who vow to write in a non-Trump Republican, or who, like Lehman, will vote for the No Labels candidate are increasing the chances that a man who promises to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists, imprison his critics, and become an ally of Russia, will be elected."
~ Mona Charen
Charen says this from a conservative GOP never-Trump stance.
"Come November in this year’s General Election, there will be no such thing as uncommitted. There will be no standing on the sidelines. When the General Election comes in November, here’s how it will go down on the Democratic side of the political equation: If you vote for Biden then you vote for Biden. If you vote for Trump then you vote for Trump."
"If you vote for any of the alternative candidates, you have voted for Trump. If you vote uncommitted, you have voted for Trump. And if you stay at home and don’t vote at all, then you voted for Trump."
I don't get the "why does one state get to decide" question from #SCOTUS Justice #Kagan. Like... literally every #State has the authority to exclude any candidate for #President. Ask every #ThirdParty candidate who is only listed on a handful of state ballots, or only one state. Oh, but it's a major party candidate so suddenly it's not allowed for state legislatures to run their elections?
Article 2 Section 1
...
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress...
It doesn't say "unless it's one of the two major parties, those candidates get to be on the ballot regardless of the state legislature's direction."
#Colorado went through the process determined by its legislature to see if #Trump should be allowed on the primary ballot and the answer was no. That's it. The end.
I should have listened to my better judgment and have shut down conversation about Pamela Hilliard Owens' critique of third-party voters when I posted a link to that article.
Nothing brings out the pretend liberals/progressives whose fundamental agenda is to promote Trump while bashing the Democrats more quickly.
Once again, Pamel Hilliard Owens issues a warning about third-party voting:
"In 2016, there was a concerted effort to demonize and discount highly qualified Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and far too many people decided to vote 3rd-party or vote 'their conscience,' leading to an Electoral College win for Donald Trump even though Hillary garnered over 3 million more popular votes."
"Jill Stein of the Green Party and Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party both pulled enough votes from Hillary to cause her to lose the Electoral College. Many Bernie Sanders supporters also sat out the election, blaming the DNC for not supporting him, even though Bernie is not a Democrat and the DNC had no obligation to support a non-Democrat."
Vote third-party or sit out the election, and you're voting Trump — and doing what he wants.
Pamela Hilliard Owens continues posting about why voting 3rd-party or sitting out the 2024 election is to vote for Trump:
As she notes, when Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 and a razor-thin number of votes in Florida threw the election to the Supremes, who handed the presidency, to the Republican, votes for 3rd-party candidates such as Ralph Nader and others put Bush in the White House.
And in 2016, déjà vu all over again (since some of us refuse to learn):
"In 2016, there was a concerted effort to demonize and discount highly qualified Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and far too many people decided to vote 3rd-party or vote 'their conscience,' leading to an Electoral College win for Donald Trump even though Hillary garnered over 3 million more popular votes."
"Jill Stein of the Green Party and Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party both pulled enough votes from Hillary to cause her to lose the Electoral College. Many Bernie Sanders supporters also sat out the election, blaming the DNC for not supporting him, even though Bernie is not a Democrat and the DNC had no obligation to support a non-Democrat."
And now 2024 and Trump as the alternative, and people STILL want to jabber self-righteously re: 3rd-party votes.
Oh look it works again, thought when it wanted to access #X anonymously it didn't work anymore. Apparently it now works again like on #Twitter and you can distribute its anonym here in the #Fediverse over a #Nitter instance. It's more convenient to avoid the data collection frenzy of this #web recording for your #privacy.
🧵 …and that's why I use the plugins and tools mentioned above and don't use the internet unprotected:
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