This works only if the electorate allows their votes to be bought.
We can vote for whomever we choose. The notion that a third party vote is 'wasted' is false. Even in a two-party system, it's an irrefutable signal to the dominant parties that available votes are being left on the table.
There are lots of unpleasant realities about our present system, but that can't stop us from voting for the reality we'd like to see. If we do, it will happen.
TL;DR : "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
>This works only if the electorate allows their votes to be bought.
The electorate doesn't receive anything for their votes. What they receive is entertainment in exchange for their attention. Their attention is then sold to the highest bidder, i.e. the politicians with the most money.
>The notion that a third party vote is 'wasted' is false. Even in a two-party system, it's an irrefutable signal to the dominant parties that available votes are being left on the table.
You have two problems here. The first problem is that the votes aren't actually on the table. If you vote for the Green party, the Democrats can't move to the left and end up with a net increase in votes because if they move to the left they may pick up a four Green voters and lose six centrist voters. What putting a viable Green candidate on the ballot does is require the Democrat to move toward the right because they'll have to capture more of the middle in order to defeat the Republican. It also allows the Republican candidate to move even further to the right at a given level of risk of losing to the Democrat. (And obviously vice versa if the viable third party candidate is an arch conservative.)
The second problem is that the third party candidates know this, so anyone you would actually want in office and who has any realistic chance of being elected just runs on the major party ticket of the party most aligned with their views. So you don't actually have any good third party candidates to vote for, because anyone who satisfies the criteria of being plausibly electable is just going to run on a major party ticket. Feel free to trot out a few count-on-one-hand counterexamples, but your average House race doesn't exactly have a plethora of desirable third party alternatives.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you want to vote where it counts, vote (or run) in the primaries for the major parties.
We can vote for whomever we choose. The notion that a third party vote is 'wasted' is false. Even in a two-party system, it's an irrefutable signal to the dominant parties that available votes are being left on the table.
There are lots of unpleasant realities about our present system, but that can't stop us from voting for the reality we'd like to see. If we do, it will happen.
TL;DR : "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"