Welcome to our new web site!

To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.

During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.

It's OK to Vote Third Party


Paul Lehmann
Posted 10/27/20

To the Editor:

My friend Taffy Wallace and I have the debate, in each presidential election, in the Howard County Progressives group, over strategic voting as to the third parties--in this case …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

It's OK to Vote Third Party


Posted

To the Editor:

My friend Taffy Wallace and I have the debate, in each presidential election, in the Howard County Progressives group, over strategic voting as to the third parties--in this case the Green Party.

Wallace actually agrees with the Green Party platform of aggressive climate catastrophe action, single payer health care for all, criminal justice reform, social programs for the poor including housing and wages, economic justice for all, privacy rights, immigration reform, food security, local control, etc.  Yet she “chooses” to vote Democratic, because Joe Biden is the “lesser of the two evils” in the race against Donald Trump.  Republican supporters would flip the analogy and say the Trump is the lesser of the two evils.
It is sad that people choose to choose between two evils, when there are “greater good” options, as in the Green Party of Dr. Jill Stein in 2016 and Howie Hawkins in 2020.  Can a third party win an election?  It happened in 1860 when third party Republicans put Abraham Lincoln in office, who saved the nation from breakup and from slavery.  The need now is for someone to “save the planet”, like a Howie Hawkins would give every effort to do.

As in 2016, the Democratic candidate for president has consistently polled to lose in Missouri.  Thus a vote for Biden is a truly a wasted vote on a “loser”, evil or not, especially when his own supporters refer to him as evil.  So it makes sense to vote for the “greater good” for those who agree with the Green Party principles (this could also be applied to the Libertarians and the Constitutionalists whose votes would not be missed by Trump with his lead!).

Even though the greater good candidate “may” also lose (if everyone voted their conscious, as was done in 1860, the results could be revolutionarily different), a voter would have the added satisfaction that they voted on principle and values, which ultimately is all we have left in life.  Every vote counts, and when power politics is predetermined, there is room to advance the “greater good”.  [Disclaimer: this rule does not apply in close state wide races within Missouri where one candidate is “good” and the other is “not so good”, but does apply in races where both duopoly candidates are mediocre and/or “bad”.].

Sincerely, Paul Lehmann

Chair of the Howard County Missouri Green Party

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here