You’d think midterms would be a great time to get your name out there and run high profile candidates to win House districts led by charlatans…

  • jj4211@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The third party situation currently is inherently going to draw candidates that are not practically minded. Any one that might align with a third party platform but have any hint of practicality go participate with one of the two likely parties.

    In some areas, it’s not even two parties, it’s just one of the two. In those areas, you’ll see both left and right candidates in the primary for the practical choice, and the other mainstream party devolves into the same state as “third parties”, with far out impractical people trying to run.

    Election reform to make third party candidates viable would lead to more practical sensibilities in those third parties

    • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      See: Jill Stein, whoever the fuck the Libertarians are running now, Gary Johnson.

    • zarkanian
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      5 months ago

      What’s "far out’ and “impractical” about Jill Stein’s platform?

      Jill is polling a lot higher this year, but instead of taking about her platform, the media goes “Uh-oh! This could benefit Trump!”

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I would say that Jill Stein’s platform is broadly impractical. It’s largely a wishlist of “things that would be cool if they were the case” generally bereft of “how it will be acheived” and ill equipped to deal with harsh realities.

        The most pervasive issue is her platform asserts that it will do things that are beyond the authority of a presidential administration. Much of what she promises are the responsibility of congress, not the executive branch. She promises ranked choice voting but that’s not even the authority of the federal government, that’s the states. She even goes so far as to declare that foreign nations would basically act the way she tells them to. Meanwhile the Green Party despite fielding a presidential candidate is utterly missing in enough down ballot elections making it a guarantee that such a hypothetical presidential win would be lame duck from inauguration.

        There’s also some inconsistencies. Like allowing the UN Security Council to hold Israel Accountable, but at the same time wanting to abolish the UN Security Council.

        Then the flat-out bad ideas, like disbanding NATO. Her platform reads like she believes Russia would just be nice if NATO didn’t exist, that the US and NATO is the cause of the invasion of Ukraine. Maybe there was an opportunity there in the 90s if the world had helped Russia differently in the wake of the USSR collapse, but that opportunity, for now, has passed. Fairly sure if she had her wish that we’d probably see Taiwan fall to China, South Korea fall to North Korea (with Chinese and Russian help), and Russia take much of eastern Europe.