"According to the latest figures, the Libertarian candidate for president, Jo Jorgensen (pronounced Yo Your-gun-sin), has spoiled the election," huffed conservative writer Michael Warren Davis on his way to working himself into a frenzy in The Spectator. "The number of votes Yo-Yo received in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania exceeds Joe Biden's margin over Donald Trump in all those states. In other words, had the libertarians in each of those states voted for Mr Trump, he would have been reelected handily." [More]
In other words, despite all the preachy fantasy rhetoric about advancing freedom, their real-world actions have resulted in an existential loss that will work anyone who is not a self-deluded useful idiot into a lot more than a frenzy? You know, the people who could have told you this is exactly what would happen...?
Perhaps snarky JD and "Open Borders Yo" would like to take a crack at answering a challenge? And not ignore the questions or call them "stupid" or try to deflect or change the subject or say we should be more welcoming, just like every one of her followers has to date?
I guarantee you anyone disagreeing with me in comments to this post will ignore the undeniable evidence and do just that.
Third-party candidates, as a rule, end up helping the candidates they oppose. A vote for the Ls is effectively a vote for the Ds, since the L candidate usually pulls away an R vote. By the same token, a vote for the Greens is essentially a vote for the Rs. L voters and Green voters are essentially electing their enemies in protest.
ReplyDeleteLets not get in to the habit of blaming the loss on the kicker. Before the game got so close that a missed field goal or extra point kick "caused" a loss, a lot of other things had to go wrong as well.
ReplyDeleteJust like the Electoral College, minor party candidates have always been, and probably always will be, a part of the American political "game". There were, IIRC, 9 candidates for President on the ballot here in Florida.
The major parties need to get on with it, pull up their big boy or girl pants, and play the game as it exists, win or lose, not as they wish it was.
"So where did those votes go? We do have some polling evidence. In 2016, a CBS exit poll asked [Libertarian] Johnson supporters who they would have voted for in just a two‐candidate race. Twenty‐five percent said Hillary Clinton, 15 percent Trump, and 55 percent said they wouldn’t have voted at all."
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