Where you can vote Green without being voter shamed

We all know that any independent progressive that dares to vote for a third-party progressive that shares their values is secretly voting for a conservative Republican, and thus deserves to be shamed.
We also know that registered Democrats that vote for a conservative Republican are guilty of nothing at all and should be pandered to.
But did you know that Republicans dislike third-parties even more than Democrats?

Typically, majorities of Americans have supported a third major political party.
Independents are the political partisan group most supportive of a third party. Seventy-two percent of political independents support a third major political party.
...
However, this year there is a substantial, 16-percentage-point gap between the two partisan groups, with 54 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans supporting a third major political party.

In Indiana, Georgia and Montana, Libertarian candidates have enough support from the right that it could allow corporate Democrats to win.
In Arizona, Kansas and Nevada, third-party candidates could throw elections to conservative Republicans.
It's horrifying to think that democracy could produce these democratic outcomes.

What is interesting is that in two congressional districts in California your choices are either Green or Democrat. There is no spoiler effect, courtesy of California's "jungle primary".

In California's District 40, Rodolfo Cortes Barragan is running against incumbent Lucille Roybal-Allard. She's a corporate Democrat who won a special election in 1993, pretty much inheriting her seat from her father Edward Roybal, who himself was first elected in 1975.
She's not the worst politician, but she voted for NAFTA, the Patriot Act, and the 2001 AUMF.

In California's District 34, Kenneth Mejia is running against incumbent Jimmy Gomez.
Gomez only came into office last year, and he's a real progressive, but he's still a Democrat.

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boriscleto's picture

It features several "Registered Democrats", 3 female 1 male all white, talking about how his opponent is from Connecticut, and lived in Florida, so she doesn't understand the problems and people of Upstate NY. She's too "radical". His earlier ad with a "Democrat" from Oswego who's daughter died of a drug overdose played for weeks. He invited her to the State of the Union so she supports him, and Balter doesn't support harsh sentences for low level drug dealers...

I'm voting for Howie Hawkins on the Green Party line and who ever else they've endorsed. Screw the Democrats...and screw the Working Families Party for pulling their endorsement of Cynthia Nixon and putting Cuomo on their line. Maybe the Libertarians will move ahead of them on the ballot like the Greens did 4 years ago.

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

divineorder's picture

@boriscleto

Do you see any chance he might be on the ballot for the presidency next time?

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

boriscleto's picture

@divineorder He was the Green Vice Presidential candidate in one state in 2016. But who knows? Now that he's retired from his job at UPS he doesn't really have anything else to do...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

First there is the debate about whether or not to vote. If voting wins, the next debate is whether to vote for the person whose values you share vs voting against the bastard you most want out of office. 2016 I was a values voters. 2018 I'm voting against the bastard I most want to go. I want the pleasure of watching the low-life perp walked right out of office. Only way to do that is to vote for the person most likely to beat him/her regardless of party ID. Values voting for the best but least likely to win is starting to feel a lot like wishing upon a star.

Remember how smug the Dems were despite losing every office in sight? Imagine how smug they would have been if they had won. I can't bear the thought of Trump's goons staying in office and listening to him gloat.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Hawkfish's picture

I only knew about Mejia.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg

@Hawkfish
Laura Wells is taking on Barbara Lee, but she has almost no chance so I didn't mention it.

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