I think it’s time we start taking third parties seriously.
Not just as protest votes or long-shot statements, but as real vehicles for change.
The two-party system in this country has locked working-class people into a cycle of disappointment—every election feels like choosing the lesser evil, and meanwhile the things we actually need get pushed further out of reach.
When I voted for the Socialist Workers Party (no regrets!!), it wasn’t because I thought they’d win. It was because their platform actually reflects what I care about—jobs, housing, education, and peace.
I still love the Green Party too. Imagine if all working-class voters backed leaders like Eugene Debs, Ralph Nader, or Dr. Jill Stein.
These weren’t fringe lunatics—they were people calling for things we should already have: universal healthcare, a living wage, free public housing, and tuition-free universities.
That’s not utopia. That’s what other countries already do, while we dump billions into endless wars and police surveillance.
Meanwhile, our government lets corporations loot the planet and strip basic dignity from everyday people.
We could’ve built something by now. Something better.
Instead, we’re stuck in a system that props up fossil fuel giants, greenlights genocide, and ignores the climate clock ticking louder every year.
Voting third party isn’t throwing your vote away—it’s refusing to vote for your own oppression.
If enough of us did it together, they wouldn’t be third parties anymore. They’d be the people’s party.
Yet instead of realising this, most Lemmy’s still just stay mad that people like me didn’t vote for the duopoly. lol
Presidential runs get the most media attention, but the Green Party has fielded hundreds of candidates at the local and state levels for decades.
Greens have won races for city councils, school boards, and mayoral offices in various states, including California, Maine, and Pennsylvania. Lots of Greens have served full terms and pushed for real reforms around climate policy, local democracy, housing, and police accountability.
I know, because I’ve voted for them in my state and in my city elections.
Lemmy’s going around reducing the party to a once-every-four-years BS, because they suck the teet of the Democratic and Repulican parties, but they ignore the year-round organizing and coalition work that often flies under the radar of mainstream media.
As for the paperwork critique: ballot access laws in the U.S. are deliberately designed to favor the two major parties, with constantly shifting requirements from state to state. The Greens, like other third parties, often face legal and logistical hurdles just to be visible. Mistakes do happen, but they’re usually the result of resource gaps, not bad faith.
In fact, the Green Party’s platform on healthcare, climate justice, demilitarization, and worker rights has been totally consistent over time. That consistency is itself a sign of good faith: they stand by their positions, even when it’s unpopular or difficult.
Also, Stein was not paid by russia. Lemmy wanted you to think that so that the existing corrupt dupoloy of Democrats and Republicans could stay in power.
For the record, I didn’t vote Green party. I voted Socialist party, but I admire a lot of Green Party ideas.
Oh, and before the people start yelling, “See!? See?! Universal Monk is a troll!” This is my fucking community that I started and mod. So nothing I’m saying is trolling. I’m providing facts about Green Party, in a Green Party community. That’s not trolling.
I’m quite certain that people will ignore facts, and just continue to try bullying and banning me some more. But just like Jeremiah Hacker, the 19th Century radical journalist/anarchist/abolitionist, I won’t stop. No matter what you all try to do to me. lol