Polarized Americans Blame Third-Party Voters for Trump’s Victory

Summary: Americans blame each other for the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election instead of blaming the politicians and the two-party system.

Conspiracy theories are already running about the election being rigged, that Russia meddled in the election, that Trump received millions of fraudulent votes, and even that ballots are being thrown away and not counted. In Oregon and Washington, ballot drop-boxes were set on fire a few weeks ago, and people feared there would be more tampering like that. Americans have begun blaming each other for the 2024 Presidential election which saw a Trump victory.

There are liberals and leftists are slinging vitriol online at their fellow Americans who voted for a third-party, blaming them for taking votes away from Kamala Harris. And there are leftists who are blaming those who voted for Kamala, knowing she would not win in their state, for taking votes away from a third-party.

Liberals say, “Voting third-party is a wasted vote,” and “A vote for third-party is a vote for Trump,” and everybody’s opinion differs. Leftists who stick to their moral compass say, “Voting for Kamala is voting for genocide,” and “A vote for third-party is a vote for third-party, not anybody else.” Those who chose to stray from the norm have a red line, that is the support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.

States which Kamala Harris has won, according to the Associated Press:

Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Some of these states are still counting ballots.

Donald Trump has won about two-thirds of the states, and he has a lead in Nevada, Arizona, and Alaska, but they are still counting the ballots.

In the vital swing state of Michigan Harris lost by a slim margin to Trump. Harris disappointed voters during her press tour in Michigan shortly before the election with her speeches, and by disregarding Palestinian voices. She promised to end the suffering in Gaza, but also to continue supporting Israel no matter what, repeating many unverified stories of the October 7^th terrorist attack and many key Zionist talking points. Many lost respect for her when she kept telling voters, “I’m speaking,” rather than listening to their concerns.

In Michigan, roughly 49.7% of people voted for Donald Trump, while Kamala Harris received about 48.3% of the votes. And the third-party candidates received 2% of Michigan’s votes, almost 110,000 people, according to the Associated Press. If Kamala had not disregarded and upset the citizens of Michigan, she may have won the support of those who voted third-party or abstained from voting altogether.

A map of the United States and their potential vote during the 2024 election, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Liberals are directly blaming those who voted for a third-party for Kamala’s loss in states like Michigan, but even if she had won those states, she still would have lost the election. In Wisconsin, Trump won about 49.7% of the votes, Harris won 48.9%, and third-party candidates won 1.5%. The race was close like that in a few other states as well, like Georgia and Pennsylvania, where Trump lead by about 2%, and Kamala could have won if voters preferred her policies and if they did not vote third-party instead.

Instead of placing the blame on the Democrats, Kamala Harris, and even the Biden administration for losing the support of their voters, people are pitted against each other and blaming those who chose a third-party candidate. One of the main failures of the two-party system that we have in the United States is that citizens are so polarized and always pitted against one another. If the Democrats in office do something wrong then the voters are blamed, if the Republicans win elections then the voters are blamed, if the Democrats lose elections then the voters are blamed, but when do we hold the politicians accountable?

The Biden administration funds and supports Israel’s genocide of Palestinians but liberals will turn a blind eye to that and vote for Democrats simply because they are more afraid of another Trump administration. Many Democrats and Republicans alike only vote the way they do because they hate the other political party more.

The two-party system is designed to keep third-party candidates out, and to give voters the illusion of choice between two parties that are funded by the same organizations and have similar policies. The parties are like two feathers on the same wing, and neither are safe from the threat of fascism.

Since Americans are so accustomed to there being only two choices in political races, they assume that if somebody says, “I’m not voting for Kamala,” that it means they are voting for Trump—they forget, or are not aware, of the option of voting for another candidate or even abstaining entirely. In this year’s election cycle the Trump won 81 million votes while Harris won 67 million, totaling 148 million. In 2022, there were over 161 million registered voters in the United States, which is almost half of the 337 million US citizens; meaning that roughly 14 million eligible voters did not vote this year.

Some people who abstained did so because they did not think a vote for third-party vote would matter, but they did not want to vote for either candidate. Imagine the outcome if all 57 million of those voters believed that their vote mattered enough to change an election, or the future of the two-party system.

When an election like the 2024 Presidential election has an unfavorable outcome, people always look to their neighbors to blame, believing that anyone who does not vote the same way is an enemy. Imagine a United States where the citizens are not polarized and pitted against one another.