The Perils of Political Third Parties?

“If you don’t vote for A, you’re helping B!”

The above is the typical rejoinder, in my experience most often expressed by liberals/Democrats, about our horrific voting system. So let’s talk about that a bit.

I confess that I myself used to believe this, but no longer do – not after Biden’s disastrous sweeping of COVID-19 under the rug and the Democrats’ refusal to hold Trump and his minions accountable for their crimes against our nation. Sidebar: if you’re a Garland-stan, save yourself some time and stop reading now. Those there the only two reasons I voted for a neo-liberal old white guy (I’m an old white guy), who was among my last choices in the 2020 primary.

But if our choices now – and I’m specifically talking about the Presidency here, as there are a lot more issues in involved in Congressional and state-level elections – are between a Nazi and someone who works hard to have bipartisanship with Nazis and refuses to hold them accountable, where do you think that leaves us?

What’s going on in Washington now reminds me a LOT of what happened in the German parliament in the 1930s, when the opposition parties failed to unite and stop the Nazis and the doddering von Hindenburg eventually handed the power of the Reich Chancellery to Hitler. And they are choosing this path! “Bipartisanship” with Nazis – well, there was a time when people who thought like that were considered collaborators (and that term wasn’t a compliment).

For those who are rolling their eyes at the comparison of what we’re seeing here in the U.S. to the rise of the Nazis, take some time to go read William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – the pre-war chapters should be enlightening.

I believe most of us don’t want to support Nazis. But there is also no percentage in supporting a party – the Democrats – who are refusing, yes refusing, to hold traitors and seditionists accountable. In addition, one of the fundamental “must-do’s” when Biden came into office was to either expand the Supreme Court or, through a combination of actions by DOJ and Congress, oust the treasonous (Thomas) and illegitimate (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett) justices on the bench. He and the Democrats refused, and I don’t have to recount for you the string of legal disasters that has led to.

On top of that, while Trump started us down the road of pandemic response disaster, Biden – with his “Joe Cool” shades – jammed the accelerator to the floor like he did with that Ford electric truck in normalizing mass death and disablement for the benefit of the donor class. And not only has he inflicted unrestricted SARS-CoV-2 infections upon us, he’s destroyed any remaining credibility key institutions like CDC and HHS might have had and left us open to whatever microbial horror is coming next.

In addition, while Biden’s administration has tossed a few bones to the “Green New Deal” contingent, his actions have put him solidly in the corner of the fossil fuel industry. Climate catastrophe is already upon us, and he’s been opening up drilling opportunities right and left. His children and their children won’t have to suffer the consequences, but you and yours will.

One other thing: only candidates the national committees want get national committee money and support, and the Democrats, in particularly have a sordid history of supporting some absolutely shitty candidates. Don’t believe me? Look into how Nancy Pelosi and the DNC pulled out all the stops for Henry Cuellar, what I’ll call a Manchin Democrat, over progressive Nancy Cisneros in Texas in a very close primary that resulted in a win for Cuellar. And I also don’t need to mention Nancy’s energetic efforts to crush any push to ban members of Congress or their spouses from trading stocks. I mean, that’s one of their main sources of grift – how rude!

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

This is where we’re inundated with cries of, “But Biden is better than Trump (or DeSantis, or any other Nazi of your choice)! If you don’t vote for Biden, you’ll get THEM!”

There is some truth in that on the surface, but it’s really false logic. Fascism in this country, which has now permeated Congress and many state legislatures, is not going to go away on its own, and Democrats at the national level aren’t combatting it like the threat it is, nor will they. Why? Because they swill from most of the same money troughs as the Republicans and want the flow of gold to continue. They wasted two years seeking “bipartisanship,”only to allow the Republicans to take back the House of Representatives, with members of the Sedition Caucus occupying key committee chairs, Wray and DeJoy still occupying key positions, Trump campaigning for President, and Mike Flynn building up the ranks of his Q army.

In short, if you’re looking for the Democrats to save you, you’re looking in the wrong place. They’re not the cavalry. Literally all they’re doing, intentionally or otherwise, is giving the Nazis time to consolidate and bolster their positions in state legislatures and Congress. And the Nazis control SCOTUS, as I previously noted.

So if they’re not going to save us, and have arguably done immense harm under Biden, why are we voting for them?

“But…but…what can we do? A third party doesn’t stand a chance!”

There is a great deal of truth in that, because plurality voting favors two parties. But at least at the state level and in Congress, independents HAVE won. An independent Presidential win is unlikely, but it IS possible. Difficult and unlikely, yes. But possible.

And we have to try, because the alternative is just repeated iterations of the last few election cycles that are going to lead us right into fascism, continued mass death and disablement, and eventual destruction by climate catastrophe as we choke on garbage and pollution. Again, the Democrats are not going to save us from these things; they’re part of the problem.

I personally believe that 2024 is our last chance. It’s time to break the wheel and Get Shit Done (GSD2024).