not easy being Green

https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-dangerous-illusion-of-a-presidential-third-party-in-2024

The Dangerous Illusion of a Presidential Third Party in 2024

Anyone backing a third-party candidate should be clear eyed: they are not establishing a new political faction, because their candidate is not going to win. Rather, they are creating a spoiler who will help elect Donald Trump.

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It’s on this basis that I can understand and have some sympathy for Greens who say: “Run as many candidates as possible, but avoid running at the topmost levels where the perception or reality of spoiling alienates so many people who otherwise might be at least somewhat sympathetic.”

The problem is that those higher levels yield the most visibility … and supporters clamor for candidates to vote for. The nationwide and state-wide offices let the most number of our supporters see Greens on their ballot.

It would be great if we could run in a large number of the 435 congressional districts; then, if we avoided running for senate, governor, and president, Green candidates would still be highly visible. But with a small number of candidates we get the most bang for the buck running where we’re able to appear on the most number of ballots.

People say to us: “Change the electoral laws first [i.e., get Ranked Choice Voting or Proportional Representation implemented] so the spoiler issue goes away entirely.” Unfortunately, it seems that only some pain will get the entrenched parties to even consider those electoral system reforms. There was a lot of talk about RCV after the “Nader fiasco” of 2000. We can attribute some of the progress in that direction to Nader. But the progress has been slow and the threat of more pain may be necessary.