Yes, this is the long contemplated post about how hypocritical the US has been about pushing "free and fair elections on a secret ballot", which is a guaranteed right (e.g., The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948). Something that "western democracies" have been preaching to the rest of the world. While the rest of the world realises how rigged the system happens to be. I still want to find the quote from the African leader, probably Julius Nyerere, who said something along the lines of "We have a one party system. Does having two parties make you twice as democratic as we are? Three parties?" I was just thinking about the people who like to believe their vote somehow counts in the corrupt US System.
So, let's start with the elephant in the room:
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
I've mentioned this one ad nauseum, but the basic gist is that the popular vote is pretty much irrelevant in electing the president. Most people don't give a shit about this unless it's their candidate who got screwed over. So, I am hoping that Jill Stein can win the electoral vote since she's on enough states' ballots to pull it off. So, a third party upstart winning the Presidential election with around 24% of the vote in a handfull of states might shake things up.
So, if you don't like the system and the duopoly candidates, Jill Stein is your candidate. Her winning the election will stir things up more than Donald Trump beating Hilary Clinton in the electoral college.
Take the test here if you don't think the Electoral College is something that needs to go:
https://www.270towin.com/quiz/
If that doesn't get you to vote for Jill Stein, I don't know what will. After all, what would shake up the US Political landscape more than having a third party upstart win the election...
This isn't in any real order than what is coming to mind, so:
THE PRIMARY SYSTEM
Every wonder why this process drags on so long: especially with modern communications technology? That's because the system is rigged so that candidates that don't have a lot of funding can beat out other candidates. And even someone like Bernie Sanders can get shut out of the nomination because the Political Parties are not governmental institutions, but private entities who make their own rules.
That should be pretty obvious if you have been paying attention for the past 3 presidential elections.
Unless you really believe that Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris are the best candidates the US could come up with...
Which brings us to the other elephant in the room:
BIG MONEY IN POLITICS
That kind of goes with the previous aspect to this, but it goes well beyond it as well. The two parties go for who the big donors want, not the people. The "Democratic" party is really obvious about this. The big donors pick and the party tries to whip up enthusiasm for Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. Any candidate who talks about the issues doesn't make it too far in the process. Even someone as tepid as Bernie Sanders, who had popular support, will be pushed out for someone the big donors don't find threatening.
As I like to point out, which you will learn if you take the 270towin quiz, Vermont is a historically red state. And Sanders (along with Leahy) have represented the state.
You get the point.
Sure ranked choice voting is one way to fight this, but I would vote Jill Stein and then write in my dogs if we had that option in this election.
Ok, I could go into way more detail, but I am very frustrated by people who think voting for the duopoly is going to change anything.
