If you want your vote to count, you're going to need to vote for one of the major party candidates.
If you want to move towards a future where third-party candidates are viable, you need to support RCV, so that they can get electoral support without producing the opposite impact on the election that is intended. And then, vote for one of the major party candidates this time, ideally the one who won't destroy the machinery of democracy which we will need in future elections to enact RCV, or elect Green Party people or Democrats.
If you wanted to mark the box for Jill Stein and accomplish nothing, you can still do that. Nothing has changed. I don't recommend it, but it's definitely still possible.
By your logic, anyone who votes for anyone is “helping” someone else.
If I truly wanted to help Trump, I would have voted for him—not a third-party candidate. So no, I didn't help Trump. I also didn't help Harris--and that's your main point.
And I'm proud I didn't help Harris. Because I didn't want to vote for her. Thank you! :)
I didn't especially "want" to brush my teeth last night, but I did anyway. Because I know that the alternative is opening up the door to things I don't want, even more than I don't want to brush my teeth.
If someone woke up and said, I'm proud I didn't brush my teeth, because I didn't want to, I would have trouble looking at them as a source of wisdom about how to accomplish the goals they're trying to pursue.
Cute analogy, But that doesn’t apply to voting because voting isn’t a routine obligation—it’s an opportunity to choose what you believe in.
Just like choosing not to brush your teeth doesn’t change the necessity of dental hygiene, choosing to vote third party isn’t ignoring reality, it’s actively rejecting a system that fails to represent true change. Thanks! :)