GreenPartyWriter

As a Green I have had so many accusations of "spoiler!" and whatnot thrown at me by rabidly partisan Democrats (one person has even said recently that Ralph Nader should be in jail...), and I'm sure Libertarians have had the same issue from Republicans. But surely a democratic election isn't such if it is limited to the same two political parties forever and ever more, as spoiler theorists seem to want. So I'm curious as to whether such people actually do believe in democratic elections but haven't realized the damage they are causing to the idea of them, or they genuinely don't believe in them but only the above restrictive Two-Party system?

As I've been following the Virginia gubernatorial election, I've seen some Democrats and especially quite a few Republicans accuse Robert Sarvis/Libertarian Party supporters of voting for one of the major party candidates. As someone that believes in reason, in having some sort of a set of ethical principles, and as someone who believes in democratic elections, I can't understand how someone could possibly come to such a conclusion and still claim to believe in and support democratic elections. It's a complete contradiction.

The only tangible force behind the theories of "spoiler" and "lesser of the two evils" that I can see is fear. Our country didn't have this problem nearly a century ago, when several third parties managed to have at least one member in Congress, and at times 10+ members between them. I don't want to believe our nation's voting population has lost its spine, or has dumbed down or something, but that's what I'm beginning to think the more I compare elections a hundred years ago to those today.

Between attacks on the press, extraordinary renditions, indefinite detention, torture and various other violations of the Constitution and human rights, I just can't fathom why so many people are still so fixated on those two political parties when there are often decent alternative candidates on the ballot. I mean, there are still a few decent people in each party, but not enough of them to justify such support after the failure of the Amash Amendment. Do voters really want a totalitarian government? Are voters really that swayed by the biased mainstream media?

I've already decided who I'm voting for, but I am curious as to how other people made their decision.

Note: This question includes third party candidates as well.

Note how there were no third party candidates allowed in last Wednesday's or any of the next Presidential debates, despite the fact that two of them have enough ballot access to theoretically win the election. We're being purposefully kept in the dark about third party views. So here are the websites to the two most viable third parties, the Greens and the Libertarians:

www.gp.org

www.lp.org

Use your preferred search engine if you want to find out about other alternatives. As for myself, I am voting for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for President.