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More than a little frustrating
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2024
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It's not about the player, it's about the game. Two party first past the post systems are subject to the weakness of the "Spoiler effect" which is a legitimate problem with the design of the system.
As a Canadian this is a well known and well worn principle of our election landscape as "strategic voting" has been byword in elections for about 20 years. The Electoral College creates additional complexity that is more or less something that can be pointed to as the source of the problem but the issues are much deeper.
I know it's really hard to actually come up against these principles and lose one's innocent belief that the system rewards your type of participation... But you need to look beyond the gloss and realize how cracked the system is otherwise you will be played.
If the democrats lose because of the spoiler effect you describe, do you think they’ll try to take on the positions of the party that they “lost” the most votes to?
Spoiler effect is fake and made up, but for the purposes of your belief that it’s real, will one or the other major party try to court third party voters in the case that they believe themselves to have been harmed by it?
Not really. The Democrats are aware of the effect but if they lose they basically just go back to the drawing board. They actively benefit from a lack of knowledge of the FPTP drawbacks so they don't bring it up unless things get dire enough to tip their hand. They have been squirrelly about letting that understanding flourish so they have been putting forward a sacrificial lamb in the form of the Electoral College to keep people's eye off the prize.
But unless you get a once in a lifetime knife edge minority government third parties tend to be unstable voting blocks who don't have the ability to influence schedules which is where the real power lies. They might vote their hearts but it doesn't matter if they can't even propose time on the floor for their issues.
From the standpoint of the beneficiaries of the spoiler effect you are a sacrifice that is useful because if we are having this conversation then we aren't talking about more threatening things lile election reform.