[mikeash]

In what way is it not? I'm a firm believer that the two-party system sucks and we need electoral reform to make third parties viable, and every time I vote I wish it were already so... but there's no escaping the reality that the system, as it is built today, makes third-party votes as useful as drawing a spaceship on your ballot.

[colejohnson66]

BECAUSE people believe that. If everyone who wanted to vote third party actually voted third party, they’d actually stand a chance.

[mikeash]

Because the nature of the system makes it unstable with more than two viable parties. It is possible for a third party to attain a critical mass and become viable, but it would displace one of the current major parties and we'd be back to a two-party system.