The Green Party does run candidates in more left-leaning areas… Not that they do a whole lot better in those races, but they do try more than just POTUS
Those candidates would probably do better as independent, for all the party support they don’t get because people like jill stein blow it all on a useless presidential bid.
And let’s say, hypothetically, a miracle does happen and she wins the election. She has zero support from congress, a congress that more or less hates her. There’s not a lot she’s going to be able to do, considering.
You’re right that Stein would have very little support in Congress if she won, but that’s not in the realm of possibility, but to say that lower office runs would do better as independents misses some of the peculiarities of the American electoral system:
- Elections in the United States are longer, more burdened with minutiae and uniquely expensive compared to other democracies. Without the organizational support of a 3rd party (mostly libertarian and green parties in the US as others lack numbers and resources), candidates struggle to even get ballot access for lack of money and volunteers getting signatures and clearing regulatory steps
- Speaking of regulatory hurdles, running a presidential candidate every four years in enough states maintains ballot access for down-ticket races
So you’re right that independent runs wouldn’t have the baggage that comes with third party association, but you’re missing that there are very real benefits to that association.
Of course, if we had public campaign financing and rank choice voting, working class voters could unite and not be divided against one another… Almost like it’s that way by design 🤷♂️
What… benefits…?
how much funding has down-ballot candidates ever gotten from the green party? Go ahead. Publish the numbers.
how much campaigning does Jill or other national green leaders do for the state office candidates? (none?)
Green party candidates are basically independents who align with a certain je ne sais quoi. they build their own campaign, source their own funds, and generally have extremely limited party support. If there’s party help at all, it’s strictly at the local level, with multiple people helping each other out.
The national Green Party does extremely little to help down ballot.
I don’t know about the other parties, but to my knowledge the only third party that has “significant” support down ballot are the libertarians, and even that is… dubious. yes. Elections are way more expensive than they should be.
But again, you’re missing my point: Bernie Sanders, as an independent, has done entire orders of magnitude more good runing for senator than Jill Stein has ever accomplished. He should be the model for how to get 3rd party influence at the federal level, not someone who has yet to win any election anywhere.
