you pretty much admit that the 3rd party is basically just a straw man or placeholder. and not an actual entity you believe in.

it just leads to spoiling elections in favor of the political party that you agree with the least. like 2000 and 2016 (where third party voting is the highest).

its the exact line of thinking that makes people support 3rd parties as a form of 'protest' against a major party (even tho they know the 3rd party has no chance of actually winning or doing shit).

and its exactly the reason why republicans literally pay for green party candidates to run in elections.
https://apnews.com/article/65e9d5d001dfd10c86ca9ab37e53e159
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07candidates.html
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/GOP-ties-bind-Green-Party-candidates-in-Texas-case-1702618.php

quite frankly much of the 3rd party voter thought process is stupid. for several reasons. the biggest one being that it hasnt remotely been close to accomplishing the stated goal in any election lol.

its the definition of insanity. we have already seen this movie over and over lol.

if you truly want to influence the direction of a party...you support and vote for candidates in *primaries* to put them at the top of ticket of a party that actually has a chance of winning a general election and enacting your preferred policies.

thats *literally* the tried and true secret to success lol. thats the method that has been used over and over but people on the left ignore it for some reason.

thats what republicans do.

when they dont like the way the party is headed...they vote *more*. for candidates in that *party* who reflect their views (no matter how extreme those views were previously considered to be).

they dont talk about 3rd parties.

they work within the actual 2 party framework the way it exists in reality (and not in theory).

you push democrats in a more progressive direction by working to elect more progressive democrats. but that would actually require being a more active participant in democracy and utilizing the levers of power that most liberals cant bother themselves to be interested in (like primaries).

green party congressional candidates are *all* at home counting gullible donor money (literally none of them are elected to congress lol). progressive *dems* ed markey and aoc are in congress mainstreaming much of the green party climate agenda.

people should be able to conclude why things worked out that way and why it provides an *obvious* strategy to best achieve their goals.