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by Retric 3692 days ago
Voting for 3rd party's often has a larger impact than voting for the top 2 party's. Remember in a 2 party system each side wants to minimize the perceived differences. But, if a 3rd party gains support one of the major party's will generally add those ideas to the platform.

Most recently is probably Libertarian > Tea Party. Not that they really had much impact, but people paid lip-service to the ideas.
2 comments
darpa_escapee 3692 days ago
If you vote Socialist or Tea Party, the Democrats / Republicans lost your vote and have the stats to back it up.

Even if you disagree with the system, vote for whoever is most aligned with your values. Someone will want your vote and your decision may impact future campaigns.

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dragonwriter 3692 days ago
> If you vote Socialist or Tea Party, the Democrats / Republicans lost your vote and have the stats to back it up.

The Tea Party isn't an actual party that fields candidates, its a right-wing grassroots (or astroturf, depending on who you listen to) organization that mostly backs Republican candidates, and mostly serves to push the Republicans on certain issues. If you vote for a Tea Party-backed candidates, a Republican has won your vote, not lost it.

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hackuser 3692 days ago
> Remember in a 2 party system each side wants to minimize the perceived differences.

I don't know that I agree. In practice, it's hardly happening (look at the Republicans and Democrats; at Trump and Clinton), and I don't see why it would happen.

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Retric 3692 days ago
Trump and Clinton are basically still at the primary stage where people have actual choices. You can expect a push to center fairly soon. They don't want to give voters issue whiplash so they generally transition though to more centrist message.

Ideally candidates want to avoid alienating their base, but they also can't pick up more voters by pandering to them. So, everyone tries to appeal to independents and not energize their opponents base. The other strategy to to fight dirty which tends to suppress voter turnout, but that can easily backfire in a presidential election.

This also often results in coded language. Which lets you target messages to people that care about an issue without generally annoying other people.

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