I think it's worse than that.

We all pretty much want the same: survive (at least). The thing is, we can't seem to agree on the best way to do so. ICE vs electric cars. Nuclear vs wind vs solar panels. Apartment vs homesteading...

So when voting, we all vote for what we believe in. But we don't believe in the same thing. And then there's "thinking fashion".

All in all, we do a step in one direction, then in the opposite direction. And we get nowhere.

> Why does almost no Green Party win an outright majority in any European national election? > Why does half the US continue to vote for a political party that outright denies man-made climate change?

The story I have heard a few times is that the candidate with the biggest budget wins. Climate movements have smaller budgets than incumbents funded by decades-deep vested interest.

> But at the ballot box, they act very differently.

> Why does almost no Green Party win an outright majority in any European national election?

> By the current set of politicians. Who are ultimately voted in by voters.

> voting isn't that much of a personal sacrifice

> Why does half the US continue to vote for a political party that outright denies man-made climate change?

Average citizen preferences have no bearing[1] on the adoption of legislation. [1](https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/fi...)

> Because we had slightly more sensible politicians back then

I cannot understate how much I disagree with the idea that politics was somehow more sensible "back then". Politicians are not more stubborn or unreasonable today, because __people__ are not more stubborn or unreasonable today.

> Why does almost no Green Party win an outright majority in any European national election?

Because ecology is not the only thing people have in mind. That's a limit of direct democracy, as opposed to a system where people would vote for policies.

Also because some of these parties are trainwrecks.

> They say they care. I'm sure they even believe they care. But at the ballot box, they act very differently.

One catch-all vote every few years is a very noisy metric for measuring people's agreement with one specific issue. Even more so when the choice is quite limited (e.g. two-horse races, between mostly similar horses, like many US votes between slightly-more-right-wing-authoritarian versus slightly-less-right-wing-authoritarian)).