Do you have a viable alternative? In the US, we have a duopoly (Democrat or ReThuglican), and the Democrats include many undesirable people. However, any vote for a so-called "Third-Party" candidate is effectively a vote for Trump & Co.
You make a valid point especially as regards your ridiculous (sorry but it is) electoral college system when it comes to Presidential elections. In 2000 I remember looking at Ralph Nader and saying, man I like a lot of where you're coming from but you're just going to hand the Presidency to Bush - along with a bit of vote rigging in Florida, of course. Even after I was EXPELLED from the Labour Party in 1992, for supporting Dave Nellist in Coventry and not paying my poll tax I continued to VOTE Labour, either to get the Tories out or keep them out, including when Blair was elected and even after the Iraq War. It caused a major argument between me and my ex wife and step daughters all of whom voted Lib Dem (who are NOT a left alternative anyway) only for simpering Nick Clegg (who now works for Facebook) to go into coalition with the Tories.
There has, however, been a seed change now that convinces me it isn't enough simply to oppose the Tories or (still worse) fascism under Reform and MAGA-Republicanism. You have to stand for something more than cuddling up to capitalism (and Big Tech in particular, Gavin Newsom!), adapting to the racist agenda of toxic media and banking on celebrity support. Kamala Harris did this and look what happened. Keir Starmer did it and succeeded only to create a new Tory government that potentially paves the way for fascism under Farage.
When I rejoined the Labour Party to vote for Jeremy Corbyn as leader there was the sniff of real change. That's not to say there weren't and aren't problems with Corbyn's politics. He's shit on Europe, reluctant to call out Putin over Ukraine, and while he's correct to want to pull out of NATO he doesn't stand for building a Common European Defence Pact and standing army in its place. In addition he isn't a Marxist (unlike Zara Sultana who's actually better) and thinks you can defend services through public borrowing rather than expropriating the capitalist class and laying the foundation for a planned economy.
The crucifixion of Jeremy Corbyn was a watershed and game changer in British politics that has rendered the Labour Party a corrupt facsimile of the Tories. The leader is an absolute scumbag and the relentless purge of socialists from the party's ranks under the crass pretext of anti-Semitism has been complimented by the encroachment of dark money, opaquely funded think tanks and corporate interests. Labour is dead as a vehicle for social change and the two party system is broken anyway both by the implosion of the two main parties and emergence of the fascist Reform Party as a dangerous and serious contender for power.
The issue in Britain, now, is what form should a credible alternative to Labour take. Unfortunately, Jeremy Corbyn's popular front with social conservatism and the sexist stich-ups that accompanied it killed YOUR PARTY at its birth, when it potentially had more members than any other party in the country. The treatment of Zara Sultana was bloody shameful but her precarious position within what is already a moribund party puts her at the mercy of groups like the SWP with whom I have different issues.
By contrast the Greens have gone from strength to strength and if you think they're still a retirement home for old hippies and burned out former Trotskyists think again. The Greens have solid, credible policies, a dynamic and articulate leader in the form of Zack Polanski, and are soaring in the polls. Fueled by the failure of YOUR PARTY they are clearly to the Left of Labour and are Britain's answer to the kind of social-populist parties that emerged in Europe beginning with Syriza in Greece. In Spain, these have changed politics for good.
I'm voting Green on Friday as you've probably figured.
The situation in the US is different because Presidential and Congressional elections are separate. Is there time to build a third party election machine to take the White House without giving Trump's fascist MAGA-successor an open goal? Would it be safer for a third party to concentrate on the unions, grassroots initiatives (like defence squads to challenge ICE) and concentrate on winning Congress and Senate seats.
On the other hand, to simply invest your hopes in a Democrat Presidency under Newsome or a corporate friendly establishment figure of that ilk will simply form a stop-gap on the road to fascism as with Joe Biden.
I "like" your support of the Green Party, but you have a parliamentarian system, and they will get some number of seats, no matter what. We have winner-takes-all rule, and I must support the only viable alternative to the unmitigated evil of Trump.
Starmer has proven himself a piece of work. So much for what used to be the "Labor" Party.
Exactly and this will be the first time I DON'T vote Labour in an election having switched to Zack and the Greens.
Do you have a viable alternative? In the US, we have a duopoly (Democrat or ReThuglican), and the Democrats include many undesirable people. However, any vote for a so-called "Third-Party" candidate is effectively a vote for Trump & Co.
You make a valid point especially as regards your ridiculous (sorry but it is) electoral college system when it comes to Presidential elections. In 2000 I remember looking at Ralph Nader and saying, man I like a lot of where you're coming from but you're just going to hand the Presidency to Bush - along with a bit of vote rigging in Florida, of course. Even after I was EXPELLED from the Labour Party in 1992, for supporting Dave Nellist in Coventry and not paying my poll tax I continued to VOTE Labour, either to get the Tories out or keep them out, including when Blair was elected and even after the Iraq War. It caused a major argument between me and my ex wife and step daughters all of whom voted Lib Dem (who are NOT a left alternative anyway) only for simpering Nick Clegg (who now works for Facebook) to go into coalition with the Tories.
There has, however, been a seed change now that convinces me it isn't enough simply to oppose the Tories or (still worse) fascism under Reform and MAGA-Republicanism. You have to stand for something more than cuddling up to capitalism (and Big Tech in particular, Gavin Newsom!), adapting to the racist agenda of toxic media and banking on celebrity support. Kamala Harris did this and look what happened. Keir Starmer did it and succeeded only to create a new Tory government that potentially paves the way for fascism under Farage.
When I rejoined the Labour Party to vote for Jeremy Corbyn as leader there was the sniff of real change. That's not to say there weren't and aren't problems with Corbyn's politics. He's shit on Europe, reluctant to call out Putin over Ukraine, and while he's correct to want to pull out of NATO he doesn't stand for building a Common European Defence Pact and standing army in its place. In addition he isn't a Marxist (unlike Zara Sultana who's actually better) and thinks you can defend services through public borrowing rather than expropriating the capitalist class and laying the foundation for a planned economy.
The crucifixion of Jeremy Corbyn was a watershed and game changer in British politics that has rendered the Labour Party a corrupt facsimile of the Tories. The leader is an absolute scumbag and the relentless purge of socialists from the party's ranks under the crass pretext of anti-Semitism has been complimented by the encroachment of dark money, opaquely funded think tanks and corporate interests. Labour is dead as a vehicle for social change and the two party system is broken anyway both by the implosion of the two main parties and emergence of the fascist Reform Party as a dangerous and serious contender for power.
The issue in Britain, now, is what form should a credible alternative to Labour take. Unfortunately, Jeremy Corbyn's popular front with social conservatism and the sexist stich-ups that accompanied it killed YOUR PARTY at its birth, when it potentially had more members than any other party in the country. The treatment of Zara Sultana was bloody shameful but her precarious position within what is already a moribund party puts her at the mercy of groups like the SWP with whom I have different issues.
By contrast the Greens have gone from strength to strength and if you think they're still a retirement home for old hippies and burned out former Trotskyists think again. The Greens have solid, credible policies, a dynamic and articulate leader in the form of Zack Polanski, and are soaring in the polls. Fueled by the failure of YOUR PARTY they are clearly to the Left of Labour and are Britain's answer to the kind of social-populist parties that emerged in Europe beginning with Syriza in Greece. In Spain, these have changed politics for good.
I'm voting Green on Friday as you've probably figured.
The situation in the US is different because Presidential and Congressional elections are separate. Is there time to build a third party election machine to take the White House without giving Trump's fascist MAGA-successor an open goal? Would it be safer for a third party to concentrate on the unions, grassroots initiatives (like defence squads to challenge ICE) and concentrate on winning Congress and Senate seats.
On the other hand, to simply invest your hopes in a Democrat Presidency under Newsome or a corporate friendly establishment figure of that ilk will simply form a stop-gap on the road to fascism as with Joe Biden.
I "like" your support of the Green Party, but you have a parliamentarian system, and they will get some number of seats, no matter what. We have winner-takes-all rule, and I must support the only viable alternative to the unmitigated evil of Trump.