Last week, we published an opinion editorial from Durham resident Frank Hyman about the wisdom (or perhaps lack thereof) behind voting for a third party in important elections such as this fall’s upcoming midterms. Our readers had plenty of opinions about the opinion.
From reader Iain Burnett via email:
“This reminds me about The Onion article used ad nauseum after every school shooting with only the date and place changed. Only this version is about elections, and some iteration of it appears every two years. ‘An election is coming up, and boy it’s going to be close, so all you Green spoilers out there, get with the program and vote Big Blue!’ Republicans likely feel the same way about Libertarians (who vastly outnumber Greens in NC, by the way)—perhaps the GOP have their own ‘independent’ publications where they can slowly erode democracy with that inherently reasonable talk that ‘this is the last time, baby, you can vote for who you want to next time.’ Disturbing. How about instead of letting partisan junk like this into your Op-Ed section (which by the way, I believe was written by a registered Democrat if NC voter lookup is correct), you call attention to the fact that close to two million registered NC voters don’t vote at all. That is the true shame of our elections. Is Ranked Choice Voting the fix? Are debates that include all candidates a good idea? I don’t know, but we need change that makes even the political outliers feel like welcome participants.”
From Twitter commenter Necco Wafer:
“The responsibility is on the party to move left if they want to capture voters on that side. If Dems keep sliding right to capture more conservative voters they shouldn’t be surprised to shed votes on the left.”
From Twitter commenter Care bear mech suit:
“Green party candidates don’t take votes away from Dems. They appeal to voters Dems have intentionally disenfranchised. Those are votes Dems wouldn’t have gotten anyway.”
And from Twitter commenter Michael Oakes, who is also a Libertarian candidate for NC House District 49:
“@indyweek, attacking third parties isn’t a good look.”
Finally, reader Iain Burnett weighed in again on Facebook:
“Two Thumbs Down. Relies on faulty assumption that people who support Green politics would forget that the Democratic party tried all summer to get the Green candidate thrown off the ballot (how democratic!). Misses the point that there are only a few thousand Green supporters and many more Libertarians who might just as easily realize a vote for Libertarians only helps Democrats (much danger!). Completely glosses over the fact that candidates should be appealing to the millions of voters who gave up on the gridlocked duopoly in Congress and won’t bother to vote (such sad!). Don’t be fooled by the Democrat pictured—he’s got morels, not morals.”
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Backtalk: Morels, not morals
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Last week, we published an opinion editorial from Durham resident Frank Hyman about the wisdom (or perhaps lack thereof) behind voting for a third party in important elections such as this fall’s upcoming midterms. Our readers had plenty of opinions about the opinion.
From reader Iain Burnett via email:
“This reminds me about The Onion article used ad nauseum after every school shooting with only the date and place changed. Only this version is about elections, and some iteration of it appears every two years. ‘An election is coming up, and boy it’s going to be close, so all you Green spoilers out there, get with the program and vote Big Blue!’ Republicans likely feel the same way about Libertarians (who vastly outnumber Greens in NC, by the way)—perhaps the GOP have their own ‘independent’ publications where they can slowly erode democracy with that inherently reasonable talk that ‘this is the last time, baby, you can vote for who you want to next time.’ Disturbing. How about instead of letting partisan junk like this into your Op-Ed section (which by the way, I believe was written by a registered Democrat if NC voter lookup is correct), you call attention to the fact that close to two million registered NC voters don’t vote at all. That is the true shame of our elections. Is Ranked Choice Voting the fix? Are debates that include all candidates a good idea? I don’t know, but we need change that makes even the political outliers feel like welcome participants.”
From Twitter commenter Necco Wafer:
“The responsibility is on the party to move left if they want to capture voters on that side. If Dems keep sliding right to capture more conservative voters they shouldn’t be surprised to shed votes on the left.”
From Twitter commenter Care bear mech suit:
“Green party candidates don’t take votes away from Dems. They appeal to voters Dems have intentionally disenfranchised. Those are votes Dems wouldn’t have gotten anyway.”
And from Twitter commenter Michael Oakes, who is also a Libertarian candidate for NC House District 49:
“@indyweek, attacking third parties isn’t a good look.”
Finally, reader Iain Burnett weighed in again on Facebook:
“Two Thumbs Down. Relies on faulty assumption that people who support Green politics would forget that the Democratic party tried all summer to get the Green candidate thrown off the ballot (how democratic!). Misses the point that there are only a few thousand Green supporters and many more Libertarians who might just as easily realize a vote for Libertarians only helps Democrats (much danger!). Completely glosses over the fact that candidates should be appealing to the millions of voters who gave up on the gridlocked duopoly in Congress and won’t bother to vote (such sad!). Don’t be fooled by the Democrat pictured—he’s got morels, not morals.”
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
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