Are you aware of just how much money is hidden behind shell PACs? I’m speculating because I don’t have the resources to track down who’s behind who; who’s behind who on every contribution.

Individual contributions are safe, and it’s good for her that enough individual donors she qualified for matching funds. I mean, it’s a pretty low bar; $5,000 in (each of) 20 states, but, yeah, it’s good for her. It’s enough to run how many national ads, do you think? It’s nothing compared to the millions being spent by the other parties, and - you did make a good suggestion. I should go and see just where her contributions are coming from.

I’m not an investigative journalist, and my interest in this is so low even posting comments on Lemmy is taxing my patience. But I will say: better statisticians than myself have said that Ralph Nader had a significant spoiler effect on Al Gore; Ralph Nader gave the presidency to Bush. I contributed, because I was young, ignorant, and I hated Tipper Gore; and I voted for Nader.

Nader never had a chance; he didn’t come remotely close to being elected. By voting for Nader, I was helping Bush.

Bernie helped sink Hillary; his lukewarm endorsement, and the vitriolic intrangency of his base, tipped the scales. If the Bernie Bros had all voted for Hillary, history would be much different. We wouldn’t have an activist, right-wing supreme court - the single biggest damage Trump caused in his term.

As long as the US uses the Electoral College and First-Past-the-Post voting, this is the reality. Idealism will not fix it: voting for third parties won’t fix it. No third party will win even a single state, much less the election. And while I try to have patience with idealists, I don’t think the world can afford to faff about with people like Jill Stein. The world can’t afford to have younger people learn the hard lesson I did. Votes count, but only votes for major parties. Other voters may as well stay home for all the harm they’ll do.