The 'Wasted Vote' Fallacy

It's been said by nearly everyone endorsing a Third Party Candidate, and, apparently, it continues to need to be said. Let me make this perfectly clear:

Voting for a 3rd Party Candidate is NOT wasting your vote.

Did y'all get that in the back of the room? Good. Now, let me tell you why.

1. Voting is not about picking who you think will win. 

This seems obvious. If voting was all about picking who you think will win, everyone should check the polls right before the election and just vote for the front runner. Obviously, you vote for the person you believe in. Or, at least, that's what you are supposed to do. Otherwise, what are you voting for?


Moreover, if voting is about who you think will win, then shouldn't all Republicans in California just vote for Clinton while all Democrats in Alabama vote for Trump? Someone, anyone, explain to me why Democrats in Red States and Republicans in Blue States have an inherent right to vote their consciences but 3rd Party voters are silly ideologues who 'spoil' elections?


2. Strategic Voting is fancy speak for 'I don't believe the system can change and I am too scared to try.'

I know. I know. Trump is scaaaary. Clinton is eeeevil. (Pause a moment for my eyes to roll right out of my head). Okay. We've gotten that out of the way? Yeah. Trump is scary. So is Clinton. So is our two party system. So is our National Debt. So are the endless wars we find ourselves fighting. Now that we've established a lot of things are scary, let's move past the fear-mongering.

The duopoly of political power we have in America has this brilliant (and terrifying) built-in protection clause. You see, when we break off into two teams, our candidates can do whatever the fuck they want because they know you will vote for them as lesser of two evils (real or perceived). Remember when Romney was sooooooo scary/stupid/evil? or Obama? Or McCain? Or Gore? Or Bush? Or Kerry? You can only cry 'wolf' on 'OMG THE OTHER GUY IS THE LITERAL WORST' before people stop being moved by that strategy. That's the two party's fault for not giving us positive options but rather putting up polarizing candidate after polarizing candidate. Don't blame the sane man just because everyone else is crazy.

3. Your values and priorities are not more important than mine. 

Now, this is going to come as a shock to some of you, but just because you happen to like a candidate or party that is popular doesn't actually mean your point of view is more valid. A billion people believe Mohammed moved a mountain. Doesn't mean that mountain moved. 2.2 billion people believe a man named Jesus rose from the dead after three days. Doesn't mean zombie Jesus was real. Having a lot of people agree with you means exactly nothing about the validity, truthfulness, morality, or importance of your position or candidate. Stop pretending it does. Democracy means you can win elections. Winning doesn't make you right.

4. We aren't idiots. We know Johnson/Stein/whoever is not going to win. That's not the point.

Going back to the first point, when you say 'but he can't win', you are implying that you think we are voting only for the purpose of winning. Of course, we'd love to win. And, frankly, people from both parties would probably end up happier if a 3rd party won because this polarizing bullshit would go right in the trashcan. But we know, realistically, a 3rd party cannot win...yet. The goal is to let the parties and the people know that this duopoly in politics is coming to an end. We just happen to be the ones brave enough to stand up for our principles before it becomes popular. You can't fault us for that. One day, in 20 years, when 3rd parties are winning elections, and you all decide to head over to a party you actually believe in (rather than the team you root for), we will happily accept you with as few 'i told you sos' as possible.

5. If your candidate loses it is because you have a bad candidate. 

Bullying people who don't like your candidate into voting from him/her because of the 'peril' that will befall the nation if they don't is implicitly admitting that your candidate sucks but sucks less than the other one. Maybe you should have picked a better candidate, then. I'm not the one who chose two of the most polarizing and least popular people of all time to represent my party. You guys did. And since you did, own him/her. And own that loss, whenever it comes. It's not my job to prop up your bad choice.

And while we are at it, let's talk about 'stealing' votes. Fuck that. Seriously. This is an insane and absurd mentality whereby you believe your candidate is entitled to my vote and that if I don't give it to them, I'm stealing it. They are entitled to nothing. Nothing. Being a member of a party with a lot of corporate money and letterhead doesn't mean anything. You get the votes you earn, or that you can scare out of people. That's it.

So, guys, before you start campaigning for your candidate, wherever you choose to campaign, stop with this 'wasted vote' fallacy. The only 'wasted votes' are the people who actively vote against their best interests and ideals because they are scared.

And while you are convincing yourself that Trump or Clinton are just 'too scary' to do anything like vote with your conscience, think about all the nations bombed, corporations bailed out, politicians enriched, and system problems over the last several decades and ask yourself how the two party system isn't 'too scary' to do anything about?