if someone doesn’t agree with either party why should they vote? when someone refuses to vote for your party they are simple refusing, this does not mean they are voting for the other side. i really dislike this conflation people make.
here’s a fun thought experiment. democrats win this upcoming election, does this mean all the people who didn’t vote had actually voted democrats?
Consider two scenarios: one where you vote, one where you do not, all else is the same. In the scenario where you vote, the candidate that you vote for, that you least disagree with, has a higher percentage of votes than in the other scenario. In the scenario where you don’t vote the candidates that you wouldn’t have voted for, the ones you most disagree with, have a higher percentage of votes than in the other scenario.
Not voting is effectively voting for the people you most disagree with.
democrats win this upcoming election, does this mean all the people who didn’t vote had actually voted democrats?
That’s a different argument than what I was making. “Not voting is effectively approval of whoever wins.” related but not the same.
Stop thinking about it like you need to vote for someone to represent your views because that’s NEVER how it worked. It’s a tug of war, everytime you don’t vote you’re letting your side down.
Just because not everyone pulling with you agrees on where to stop pulling doesn’t mean you get to drop the rope.
It’s your local representative, as in he represents your area and his job is generally to bring more money to your area. They don’t represent your political views. For that you need to pull your weight at the election to open up space for views more aligned with yours at the elected body level (example the house or senate for national elections). You might be surprised to hear this but MOST of politics is deciding what money to collect and where to spend it. A TINY percentage is what most people consider “political” stuff. When it comes to that, when you pull your weight you open up space for different views that are better aligned with how you think. It’s not about how YOUR representative thinks, it’s about how the entire house and Senate think. Your representative will generally be pushed to agree with the overall party position or risk being replaced.
If we all pulled our weight the elections would look like this. How many more progressives and leftists enter the ticket in this world? How many Bernie Sanders, AOCs and Ilhan Omars? Or whatever your political views are (scared to ask honestly)…
Pull your weight today, or drop the rope and be unrepresented for another round of elections.
You edited your comment from “so who represents me” to “third party okay”. Third party is like attaching a new rope and pulling to the side. You’re not doing much. Maybe better than nothing, but often not.
