The Third-Party Voting Dilemma: Principles or Strategy?

Third-party votes are often aimed at more strategic goals, like gaining state recognition for their party. But third-party voters tend to be more ideologically driven. Can the two be squared?

A vote is an expression of self-interest. It reflects not only the preferences of the voter — reflecting their personal value-judgments and belief in what policies are most conducive towards their welfare — but the policies they believe will respect the choices they make in working towards their own ends.

This means, despite what certain self-appointed keepers of democratic welfare shriek, there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to vote. Parties do not own votes; they attract them. And they do so only to the extent their platform aligns with the values of individual members of the electorate. And to the extent they recommend policies likely to promote the values held by their supporters.

So-called “vote shaming” flips the relationship between a person and their vote on its head: those who seek to berate and belittle anyone who expresses a candidate preference that doesn’t align with what nosy scolds claim protects democracy and rights attempt to supplant the ideology and interests of the subject of their disapprobation and replace it with their own. They seek to divorce individuals from their ideas: asking them to…