And now move to the next election, 1860, in which the third party once again disappeared. No term-over-term progress made. I see no evidence any current minor parties are faring any better.

I’m not saying to stop activism. I’m saying voting a third party candidate for US president is minimally effective activism. Putting resources into getting people to vote for third party presidential candidate is an inefficient use of those resources. The general public can see this, and it adds to the perception that third parties are disorganized and unserious. (In addition to the system being built to keep them out)

Those resources should be spent on down ballot candidates and other initiatives to drag the Democratic party in the direction of cutting funds to Israel. We’re seeing this now. A group of Palestine were almost invited to the DNC. The DNC chickened out, but the fact that it was even better considered never would have happened ten years ago. We have a steadily increasing number of Democratic senators and representatives who vocally oppose the genocide in Gaza. The anti-genocide position correlates to politician’s generation, which is only going to improve further as Biden and Pelosi’s generation gets out and there are more of AOC’s generation and younger. Installing anti-genocidal local officials like sheriffs, judges, city councils, and university regents means peaceful protests wouldn’t be shut down as frequently.

My down ballot will not be a straight Democratic ticket. But I’m sure as hell not giving Trump even a miniscule edge by throwing my vote for US president away on RFK Jr. or Stein.