I’m torn. Both Galadriel and Sauron say the other is a threat to Middle-earth. One has to be wrong, so whom am I to trust? Should I trust the Dark Lord who attempted to topple the White City of Gondor, dominate all life, and attempt to stay in power for eternity? Or do I trust the Elf Queen representing the coalition of Men and Elves who defeated Sauron when he tried to enslave the Free Peoples… but could maybe do more meet-and-greets?
I do not expect restraint from him but I also see no restraint from the current administration.
I hope you will realize you do in fact have more choices than voting for genocidal candidate A or B.
I’m not the voting police I don’t care how you rationalize voting or not but regardless be clear eyed and realize what you are doing. If a genocide is an acceptable amount of baggage for a candidate to have that can be a choice you make but make no mistake about what you are accepting.
So in this situation, are you suggesting Stein, de la Cruz, West, or Fruit? Because other than as a “protest” vote that hands it to Trump, what does that do exactly? Let’s say air traffic controllers are busy with all the flying pigs, and somehow Stein wins. She’s woefully under-qualified and she’s literally the leading third-party candidate. What exactly do you think she or any one of them would be able to do? They’re not serious candidates, and are more likely to setback efforts at building third parties than advancing them.
Protest votes can be useful in primaries but are pointless in general elections. No serious candidates have been building a party with a chance at knocking off the Dems and GOP for the past 4+ years, and instead they only come out every presidential cycle to fundraise and maybe grab a few headlines. The last mildly “successful” third party candidate for President was Perot, and (thank god) he did nothing to shift the national conversation. No one remembers the protest votes, they only remember who won.
I’ve been voting since 1988 and active in community and political organizing the whole time, and pretty much every candidate I’ve backed in the presidential primaries has lost. Every election has been a somewhat dissatisfying choice that has lead to a few policy wins and many more disappointing loses. But absent a magical unicorn national third party that builds a grassroots movement that can actually affect change, I’m left with choosing what I believe is the only option with a hope of something better and against the option that would definitely bring me and my loved ones harm, as he would bring harm to literally millions of others. You can say I’m selling out my principles, but I say any other choice is selling out my fellow humans around the world and in the US.