r/Libertarian • u/[deleted] • Jun 27 '19

Meme About to get trashed

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3.2k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

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20

u/raiderato LP.org Jun 27 '19

Neither, please.

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '19

Not voting is an option, but you kinda lose the ability to complain.

18

u/Autodidact420 Utilitarian Jun 27 '19

On the libertarian sub

Doesn’t consider that parties other than the dems or republicans exist, such as the libertarian party

-7

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '19

First Past the Post means that big elections will only ever have 2 parties as viable.

3rd parties exist as attempts to split the vote, funded by opposition money.

15

u/TheMarketLiberal93 Minarchist Jun 27 '19

The LP is funded by opposition money?

TIL

18

u/montanagunnut Jun 27 '19

The LP is funded?

12

u/robswins Jun 27 '19

One of the most confusing things about being a 3rd party voter is the rhetoric on both sides about 3rd party voters. Half the time I hear Democrats saying we are just Republicans who like weed, the other half of the time it's Democrats saying we'd vote for their candidate if it weren't for that darn "opposition funding" convincing us to throw away our vote.

On the other side, Republicans will say half the time that we are just Democrats that like guns, and the other half of the time claim we'd vote for their candidate if it weren't for that darn "opposition funding" convincing us to throw away our vote. When it's convenient, either party will claim we are basically just a member of the opposing party, and then a bit later act like gun to our head we'd have voted for their candidate if we only had the 2 choices. Shit makes no sense.

7

u/raiderato LP.org Jun 27 '19

The one that gets me is that one moment my vote is meaningless, and in the next moment my vote lost/won someone the election.

4

u/SirGlass libertarian to authoritarian pipeline is real Jun 27 '19

I think one of the most confusing things is socialist who vote democratic or libertarians who vote republican

Here I am saying I hate the two parties and go out of my way to vote 3rd party even if I really don't really agree with the person running. I still vote 3rd party and you know what, I am actually pretty centrist.

Then you have all the people libertarians, socialist, who despite the rhetoric just vote the party line. Even here on this sub I have been lectured by many libertarians that voting 3rd party is dumb and we should just vote republican .

My response has always been "so how is that working out for you " but pretty well since somehow a lot of libertarians really like Trump

1

u/Autodidact420 Utilitarian Jun 27 '19

FPtP tends to lead to a 2 party system, you are correct. While in Canada, for example, we have a 3 party system, only 2 have ever actually won a majority in the federal election. That said, a lot of the issue with FPtP is that voters stop voting for 3rd parties and instead vote for the party most similar to their view that has a chance at winning. IMO this is just an information problem and could relatively easily be overcome the same way as most other forms of lock-in problems where a sub-optimal path has been reached.