Don’t Throw Away Your Vote!

Yesterday, I asked you to please, Please, PLEASE vote. Well, today, I’m going to ask you for another favor. And it is almost as big. I’m going to ask you not to vote for someone who can’t win. Specifically, I am going to ask you…beg you!…not to vote for a Third Party if it might hurt a Democrat.

I’m actually a fan of third parties. I always have been. The Green Party is an old favorite of mine, and at one time I even considered writing a book about Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party.

But, let’s face facts, in the American system today, small parties just don’t have a chance on the national stage. Oh, sure, in local elections, they’re terrific. They can win offices and do real good. But that just is not going to happen very often when the contest is for Congress, much less the White House.

And, in fact, smaller parties can do real damage in close elections. Yes, yes, I know. It isn’t 100% certain that Jill Stein and her Greens really cost Hillary the election in 2016, but they surely didn’t help. In at least in two states (Michigan and Wisconsin), Clinton would have won if even just part of the Green Party vote had gone to her.

So…here’s my plea. Yes, support Third Parties at the local level. Vote for Green or Socialist candidates for city council or county government. But, above that, go for a Democrat. This just isn’t the time to make a defiant gesture and vote “against the system.” Because, if you do, the system will put Republicans in office, and that means that Trump will have yet more zealots in place to support his diseased national policies.

Again, I know. In the longer turn, we may need to build new political parties in America. Or, we may need to split the Democratic Party into Conservative and Progressive wings. But that’s for the future.

Right now, we need to stand together…we need to find unity…

Because the alternative is just too horrible to consider.