Agree with you brotha. Bernie is a great example of how third party voting can be a very effective long-term political strategy. Bernie never had a chance of winning. But elements of his platform did end up being represented in the major party platforms - because they didn't want to lose those voters again (and he is still an influential thought-leader to many). I think there's a really interesting "feedback cycle" of political rhetoric - political strategists build platforms based on what they think the public cares about, then politicians and media frame the issues that we end up debating amongst ourselves and voting on the basis of. But, if we step back from that feedback/rhetoric cycle, the major platforms/media may not be giving air time to the issues that we think are the most important to begin with. So I think third party voting can function as a very effective way of pushing under-represented issues into the mainstream feedback cycles.
Excited to give this a read.
It was written a bit hastily due to time constraints, so I was unable to go as deep as I wanted. Hopefully, it still captures the sentiment.
Agree with you brotha. Bernie is a great example of how third party voting can be a very effective long-term political strategy. Bernie never had a chance of winning. But elements of his platform did end up being represented in the major party platforms - because they didn't want to lose those voters again (and he is still an influential thought-leader to many). I think there's a really interesting "feedback cycle" of political rhetoric - political strategists build platforms based on what they think the public cares about, then politicians and media frame the issues that we end up debating amongst ourselves and voting on the basis of. But, if we step back from that feedback/rhetoric cycle, the major platforms/media may not be giving air time to the issues that we think are the most important to begin with. So I think third party voting can function as a very effective way of pushing under-represented issues into the mainstream feedback cycles.