LogFAQs > #909506112

Zeus posted...

Still matters for the primaries.

Not really. New Jersey is one of the last states to have primaries. By the time we get to vote, we have almost no say in whose running, and really only get to rubber-stamp the decisions that have already been made by that point.

It also doesn't help that, by the nature of having staggered primaries, the results of the first few crucial votes will always skew and influence later primaries. Which is why so many people have complained about which states get to hold their primaries first in the past, and why those states guard their prerogative so jealously.

But again, ultimately, my vote is pretty much meaningless on the larger stage.



Viking_Mudcrap posted...

Why not vote for a third party?

Because throwing my vote away is still a waste of my time.



Mead posted...

If half of the people that think their vote doesnt matter showed up to the polls, the political environment would be a lot better than it is today.

Not really, because the system itself as it currently exists is still going to funnel very specific candidates to you. You're not voting for the best candidate for any given job, you're voting which of the terrible options you're presented with get to win over the others.

Yes, if you could get EVERY disaffected voter into the polls to vote for the same, singular anti-establishment third-party candidate (which you never will, because the system itself discourages it), it MIGHT generate change. Or it might not, because that candidate would still be mostly neutralized once they got into office and had to deal with a partisan Congress (assuming they don't sell you out once they get their entirely on their own - remember, a LOT of people voted for Trump to specifically BE that sort of game-breaker candidate who would buck the system).

But either way, those non-voters aren't going to change the world simply by showing up no matter how often we tell ourselves that lie, because those voters aren't really a unified force, and they have no way to represent their position even if they were. There was a point where it seemed like the Internet might be useful to generate actual grass-roots populist candidate possibilities, but from what we've seen, that's basically a poisoned well now and will likely remain so for years to come.

The political system in the US as it currently exists basically operates to disenfranchise most potential voters while still giving them the illusion of choice to manufacture consent of the governed. And it will continue to do so as long as we continue to have a two-party system with a massive bar in terms of resources and connections to throw your hat into the race as a realistic candidate.


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