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This isn't the year for third parties [1]

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Date: 2024-03-03  

“Third parties can’t win.”

Usually this is what you tell your eccentric but well meaning friend who says that they are going to be special and different by supporting a third party. You can’t change their mind, usually because you can’t diagnose what’s wrong with them. You can show them this, and leave them be to figure things out on their own.



When I joined the Libertarian Party in 2004, I knew that their presidential nominee wasn’t going to win. I wanted to be in the party that supported marriage equality and marijuana decriminalization. Those were unpopular stances back then, so the most we could expect to accomplish was to change a few hearts and minds. I don’t regret joining it 20 years ago, but I wouldn’t recommend joining the LP today.

It is admirable to stand up for your principles and to not be afraid of failure. But the problem with minor political parties is that by the time they are big enough to make a difference, they start to attract bad actors. I was an idealist once too. But there were three things I realized during the pandemic:

1. A free society cannot be an ignorant society. Whether I have kids or not, it’s still in my interests to support public education, so that the person who has to take care of me in a hospital some day knows why they have to clean their hands before and after touching me.

2. Germs can deprive a person of life and liberty way easier than the government can. Being hooked up to a ventilator looks worse to me than being in prison. And COVID-19 still kills way more people than the government does.

3. Every group attracts opportunists, conspiracy theorists, and outright criminals. The idea is to join a group with the kind of people who have more or less the same goals as you. If you join a small group because you think everyone in that group has the same set of ideals as you, you still don’t have any guarantee that future members will share those ideals.

Every political party that lasts longer than a couple election cycles changes its platform over time. When choosing a spouse, a home, or a career, then it makes sense to choose based on where you expect to be in twenty years. The reason for this is because it’s way easier to control your own fate than it is to predict where the political landscape is headed. But if you still want to be allowed to make your own choices in the future, then let’s all work together as a team.

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