Why is Ralph Nader yelling at me?

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Support our nonprofit journalism]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     April 17, 2024 Hello there! I’m Clint Hendler, a Mother Jones senior editor. According to Gallup, 63 percent of Americans like the idea of a new [political party](. I’m one! Unless you think our current system works swimmingly, it’s not hard to guess why. But for all the pent-up appetite, this year’s election is a perfect illustration of how American democracy is hostile to and unsafe for [third-party candidates and voters](. As much as I wish it weren’t the case as an occasional third-party voter, the fact is that our winner-takes-all system marginalizes outside candidates—or worse, sets them up as spoilers. Last week, the New York Times reported on GOP plans to help Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Cornel West, and RFK Jr. build their profiles or gain ballot access. Their logic: If voters back them over Biden, it will help Trump. In 2016, we know the Russian troll campaign drew from the same playbook to boost Stein on social media. With those three candidates already in the mix and a Libertarian contender on the way, opportunities for such dirty tricks abound. For our [May+June special issue]( on third parties, David Corn lays out those risks, which are especially high this year given Trump’s anti-democratic ambitions. But in designing this [package](, I wanted to look beyond November and acknowledge that the US’s hidebound two-party system is a unicorn among developed democracies, and that broad swaths of citizens don’t see their ideas reflected inside our system. So Mike Mechanic [nerded out on how]( reforms like ranked choice voting would foster more diverse politics. And I had a blast telling the country’s two-century-old but sometimes [overlooked history of outsider politics](. You can’t have this discussion without bringing up [Ralph Nader](, so Jacob Rosenberg got the 90-year-old on the phone for a testy [conversation]( on the limits of American democracy. Senior reporter Tim Murphy dove into [why the Libertarian Party](has failed to meet the MAGA moment by offering a credible right-leaning alternative. Finally, thousands in our online community, including newsletter readers like you, chimed in on our survey on third-party voting: You still can [here](! History shows that outside candidates will fade as Election Day nears with its high-stakes, Biden v. Trump contrast. But in a very close contest, this year, it may be voters who can’t stomach that choice who make [all the difference](. —Clint Hendler Advertisement [ADVOCATE, A New Graphic Memoir from Eddie Ahn]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [Party Poppers]( Will third-party candidates hand the election to Trump? BY MOTHER JONES SPONSORED CONTENT BY PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE   ADVOCATE, A New Graphic Memoir from Eddie Ahn A moving graphic memoir following Eddie Ahn, an environmental justice lawyer and activist striving to serve diverse communities in San Francisco amidst environmental catastrophes, an accelerating tide of racial and economic inequality, burnout, and his family’s expectations. [Get Advocate here.]( [Trending] [Will RFK Jr. and other third-party candidates help doom democracy?]( BY DAVID CORN   [Ralph Nader would like to stop having to explain why the spoiler coverage is stupid]( BY JACOB ROSENBERG   [America's voting system is the worst, thumbs down]( BY MICHAEL MECHANIC   [The spectacular implosion of the Libertarian Party]( BY TIM MURPHY Advertisement [ADVOCATE, A New Graphic Memoir from Eddie Ahn]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [Your Turn: Mother Jones readers sound off on voting third party]( "Why screw up the most important election in a century?" BY CLINT HENDLER MOTHER JONES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE   An important update on our finances We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals—and we can’t sustain coming up short on [donations]( month after month. It is [impossibly hard]( in the news business right now, and the [crisis]( facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. Neither is Mother Jones. Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and [joined forces]( with the Center for Investigative Reporting, which creates the amazing podcast and public radio show [Reveal]( and other investigative projects. It’s going to be hard making it all work, and we simply can’t afford to fall behind our fundraising targets month after month. If you can part with even just a few bucks, [please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today](. And thank you so much to everyone who recently has. We’re grateful. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? 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