Thread: Is a 3rd party vote a wasted vote?

Originally Posted by Rick Scarf

Speaking of debates, if any of you are not aware please google for more information on the League of Women Voters and presidential debates. They are a non-profit that used to run the debate, but in a nutshell the League publicly announced the reason why they stopped doing it was the corruption from the two parties. The debates now are literally run by the two major parties.

More specifically, it's run by an organization funded by major corporations and representing the two major parties. So it's not just that the two parties shutting out third party voices, but also corporations finding another way to buy favor with BOTH parties by subsidizing this whole venture.

As for this presidential election? I'm writing in "Steven Colbert." I'm in Maryland, which is going to Obama regardless of what I do. I don't think I want to vote for Johnson, though I respect him and I like many of his policy ideas. However, from the State of Maryland Board of Elections website, I see a fellow Marylander wrote in "Claus, Santa (Independent)," and frankly I may be more inclined to vote for him before Johnson. Despite the actually small policy distinctions between the two parties, politics have become extremely polarized, and I feel that I've been poisoned enough by this tainted atmosphere that I feel I must vote for a reasonably liberal candidate. I find particularly anathema his advocacy of an unprogressive taxation.

(Besides, my parents are accountants and need a convoluted tax system to take them through the next couple years until retirement.)