There is a trend lately on social media and even some news outlets to blame the the Green Party for the loss of the Democrats in 2000, essentially handing the White House to the Republicans. In a time when the current top two nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, have secured historically low approval ratings, it’s easy to preemptively assign impending failure to someone else, like current presumptive Green nominee Jill Stein or current Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, but the notion itself is irresponsible and undemocratic.
Did people vote in 2000 for the Green Party nominee, Ralph Nader? Obviously. Could the Democratic nominee, Al Gore, have won if those votes went to him? Some experts say yes. But as far as blame is concerned, the 2.74% of voters who voted for Nader pale in comparison to 11% of Democrats who actually voted for the Republican nominee, George W. Bush.
Blaming a group of voters for placing their votes for the nominee who represented their interests and values is about as undemocratic as you can get. Presidents of The United States are elected by a democratic process. Each nominee has earned the votes they receive. If you plan to blame Green voters for not abandoning their nominee to back the Democratic nominee, you might as well also blame the Republican voters for backing their nominee.
An important election is coming up in November, and you should vote for the nominee who matches your interests and values, vote your conscience, cast your vote for who you know will take the country in the direction it needs to go. We live in an information age where you can search for almost any information on any nominee, and sites like iSideWith make it almost fun to see how you relate to them. This November, place an educated vote for the nominee who represents you.
Since some might ask, I definitely won’t be voting for Trump this November, he is further from my interests and values than any nominee in my lifetime has ever been. I haven’t made up my mind about the other three though, I still have 104 days to learn as much as I can about each of them.
Update: The same comparisons are being made with the results of the 2016 election, so here are the facts. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral Collage to Donald Trump. 2% of Democrats voted for a third-party candidate while 9% of Democrats voted for Trump.