Maryland Forward Party

㏄ Grufnik

Before we give our formal recommendation in the 2024 election, we first have to cover one important fact:

Not just you… us… we… everyone in America only has 5 choices in this election.

Your first two choices are easy to explain:

• OPTION #1: If you really want Biden as President, then you must vote for Biden as President to get Biden as President. 
• OPTION #2: If you really want Trump as President, then you must vote for Trump as President to get Trump as President. 

(NOTE: Neither of these options are our official position.)

Now, since we are big proponents of alternative candidates, you may think that the third option is that “if you like RFK Jr. for president, you should vote for RFK Jr.,” but this is wrong. Because of how our system is set up, it is impossible for RFK Jr. to become president. There are too many people who vote party line, and there are too many people who will not vote, making it statistically impossible to elect RFK Jr. (see Powers, 2024) To paraphrase our co-chair, Andrew Yang, “we’re Math people and this is what the Math says.” If you wish that you could have RFK Jr. as President, or any other alternative candidate, then the next paragraph is for you.

If you wish there were more than two possibilities, the only way to make that happen is to change the way that the president is elected. Independent of RFK Jr. specifically, opening the race to more candidates is what the Forward Party is working on. It is not easy, but it is possible. And it is possible to do it without screwing up our country, but only if we do it right. If you would like more possible candidates for future elections, join us and help us fix the system.

This brings us to our third and fourth choices in the 2024 election:

• OPTION #3: If you do not want Biden to be president, then you must vote for Trump.
• OPTION #4: If you do not want Trump to be president, then you must vote for Biden.

You only have one other choice in this election:

• OPTION #5: Let everyone else decide for you.

A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote to let other people decide for you. A vote for Jill Stein is a vote to let other people decide for you. A vote for Chase Oliver is a vote to let other people decide for you. A vote for Cornel West is a vote to let other people decide for you. Again, this is not what we say, this is what the Math says.

Do you want the die-hard extremes in the two major parties choosing for you? If not, then you must choose one of your other four options in this election.

So how do you decide between two candidates that you don't want? In the Maryland Forward Party we tackle this through prioritizing our problems.  It sucks that we have to think this way, but which problem is worse? Is it a worse problem if Biden gets elected, or is it a worse problem if Trump gets elected? 

Which of these five options did the Political Relations Subcommittee of the Maryland Forward Party choose? Well, we wish that we had more candidates to choose from, so our only option is to vote against Trump, which means that we have to vote for Biden (or whomever the Democratic candidate is, if that changes). (Tired of voting against candidates? Us too! Wish you could vote for a candidate? Join us and help us fix the system.)

Yes, the Maryland Forward Political Relations Subcommittee does have a position in the Presidential race. According to our calculations, it is only through a Biden presidency that we will be able to implement voting reforms like Ranked Choice Voting that will allow us to have multiple options for President without accidentally electing the candidate that we don’t want. (see Our Principles, 2024)

 
Are you asking yourself why? First: Neither one of these candidates would be elected in the system that we would like to see happen, but of these two, there is sufficient evidence in what Trump has said and done to show that he will do everything in his power to make sure that we cannot have viable alternative candidates. All of his top campaign officials have either been convicted by a jury of their peers regarding the elections, or have been formally indicted by a jury of their peers and are awaiting trial. His team is actively working against fair elections. (Reuters, 2023) If you are not a fan of either of the two main candidates, the only way to have another option in the future is to vote for Biden. As Yang would say, "This is not our opinion. This is what the math says." There are many reasons to not vote for either candidate, but if you are like us and wish that you could vote for anyone else but these two, then the top Problem to solve is changing our election system. To do that we must vote for Biden in 2024.

But what about protest votes? In Maryland, for example, it is statistically impossible for anyone but the Democratic candidate to win Maryland's Electoral College votes because of Gerrymandering. So why not just vote for a third party as a protest vote? The first reason is to send a message. The evidence shows that Trump is enough of a threat to true voting reform that it is important to send a message that he is the greater problem. The second reason to not cast a protest vote is that our personal conversations about who should be President are no longer local. These days we talk to people in other states and even across the planet every day. And even if you don't, odds are one of your friends does. If you talk about supporting a Third party candidate, odds are that at some point you will convince someone in a swing state to also vote Third Party. When that happens, you will have affected the outcome of the Presidential election even though you did not place the vote. Our words have power, even though we may not actually witness the power of our words.

 
If you need additional reasons to convince you to vote against Trump, and that you should not leave this decision up to someone else, here they are…

We had lengthy discussions about this inside the Maryland Forward Party. Our top priority is not supporting “Dangerous Candidates”. We define a “Dangerous Candidate” as  “...anyone who grossly violates our Maryland Forward Party Candidate Pledge, or is dishonest or undemocratic [with a lowercase ‘d’].”

Our Candidate Pledge requires our candidates to:

• “Commit to transparency while campaigning and when in office through public disclosures…” – Trump consistently and grossly violates this clause, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.
• “Practice Grace and Tolerance…” – Trump consistently and grossly violates this clause.
• “Encourage diverse thinking…” – Trump consistently and grossly violates this clause.
• “Commit to…a culture that celebrates difference…, rejects hatred, and removes barriers…” – Trump consistently and grossly violates this clause.
• “Strongly oppose all acts of dehumanization because We Are All Marylanders.” – Trump consistently and grossly violates this clause.
• “Display actions and language of unity and be a leader for the whole community.” – Trump consistently and grossly violates this clause.
• “Avoid any acts of defamation, harassment, or discrimination…” – Trump consistently and grossly violates this clause.

For these reasons, the Maryland Forward Party Political Relations Subcommittee officially advocates that people choose Option 4 and vote against Trump and for Biden in the 2024 Presidential election.

References

1. Nick Powers (2024, April 26). Why a THIRD PARTY can't be PRESIDENT. YouTube.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYzM1QR3DFE

2. Maryland Forward Party (2024, April 18). Our Principles.
   https://www.marylandforwardparty.com/principles

3. Reuters (2023, August 1). What Trump allies have faced criminal charges? 
   https://www.reuters.com/world/us/many-trumps-orbit-have-faced-criminal-charges-2023-02-16/
   

4. Maryland Forward Party (2024, February 20). Candidate Pledge. 
   https://www.marylandforwardparty.com/candidate_pledge