There is nothing more infuriating to me someone who votes for third party candidates that have a zero chance at winning when the cost to do so is so great. I wish we had more than two viable political parties; I think it would be great for the country. I also know you have to start somewhere to make that a reality. But there is a time and place for that, and now is the worst possible time, and some stooges are picking the worst possible places to take that stand.
I can see someone in a deep blue state/district giving a vote to the Green Party since it would be without consequence and if enough started voting that way it could force a more liberal democratic candidate. But making a naive stand in a close race when there is so much on the line is buffoonery. I hope if you know any of these people you take them to task at every chance you get. If you care about the ideals the Green Party stands for, wouldn’t it be 1,000 times better to have a democrat in control in the era of Trump? Isn’t this the worst possible time to throw that vote away?
The problem with the Green Party is they are being used as pawns by the Republican party to siphon off votes to win elections. The math shows that Trump very well could have won due to this even though some dispute it mattered. The Green Party gets financial backing from Republicans, and there have even been instances when Republicans have ran as Green Party candidates (sorry long night, not going to link to articles, but you can google “green party republicans” for a well documented way they Repubs leverage them).
I’m there may be other of tight races tonight that may have been lost thanks to Green Party candidates, but the AZ Senate seat will be the biggest (assuming Sinema loses, which at the time of this writing seems the case). The Green Party candidate, who despite dropping out of the race and endorsing Sinema has garnered around 2% of the vote — which based on the current trends should more than enough to make Sinema the winner. And of course the GOP played it all to their advantage.
The point is, we feel like like conservatives are the ignorant voting block, but we have plenty of them on our side as well. Think about these liberals who voted for a candidate with no chance of winning AND that dropped out and endorsed the Dem. Beyond the 2% like this you usually see who throw their vote away we have millions who consider themselves liberal, want liberal policies, but are too lazy to go out and vote. They can dedicate countless hours every week to meaningless things, but cannot be bothered to spend a few hours once every two years to learn about the issues/candidates and vote. If you have someone in your life who cares about liberal policies but is voting Green or not voting at all, do the country a favor and get it through their thick skulls that aren’t helping. Maybe the next time they ask you for a favor tell them you’ll be available when they do the country a favor by voting.
PS: Why is the Green Party so bent on being a spoiler? If they really cared about the agendas why aren’t they organizing to get a “Green” candidate on the Dem ballot? It’s seems petty as hell if your candidate can’t win a Dem primary that you would run them anyways just to be spoiler and hurt your causes just because you can. All downside if you really believe in the causes, which is why it has been infiltrated and leveraged by Republicans at every chance they get.