Karl Marx on 3rd parties and 'splitting the vote'
Karl Marx on 3rd parties and 'splitting the vote'
Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workers’ candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled. The progress which the proletarian party will make by operating independently in this way is infinitely more important than the disadvantages resulting from the presence of a few reactionaries in the representative body. If the forces of democracy take decisive, terroristic action against the reaction from the very beginning, the reactionary influence in the election will already have been destroyed.
Karl Marx Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League London, March 1850
I think this is missing some nuance. While Marx accurately notes that liberals will talk about the imminent threat of fascism to gain public support and push the Overton window ever so slightly to the right in the name of bipartisanship, voting strategically to keep the right from taking reins is unfortunately the only viable option until such a time that grass-root campaigns can be used to change the political makeup at the municipal, district, and state levels first. It takes time to raise awareness, get the working class politically engaged, and build political momentum. Not voting for the lesser evil in a two party system, until such a time that you have built up ideological support with the masses, is a very privileged position to take because it assumes that the damage done by doing so won’t affect you that much.