For Those Wanting to Vote Third Party:

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Many of us voting for Hillary Clinton don’t want her in office either. We share many of your criticisms of her and did not want her to be our nominee. Personally, I voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and Bernie Sanders this year. The first time it worked, this time it didn’t. 

You’re probably wondering why I’m voting for Clinton when I’ve tried so hard to keep her out of office. That’s easy. I disagree with her on many policies, but at the end of the day, I am terrified of what a Trump presidency would hold. Being a white male, I know I’ll be fine, but my LGBTQ+, POC, or female friends will not be and I am not willing to risk their lives by letting Trump win. They have too much to lose under Trump and I have to do everything in my power to make sure they do not face that reality.

So, why not vote third party? Because a third party vote for president is just not viable, yet. I’m not going to go into why that’s true, as I’m sure you’ve been yelled at and berated for it many times these past few weeks. Hell, I was one of the people doing that, and I apologize. That isn’t the right tactic. I thought I was just being passionate, but I overlooked that you were being equally passionate, and I respect that. 

But I cannot sit idly by and let you vote third party for president. I wholeheartedly encourage you to vote third party elsewhere on the ticket though. I will be. We can no longer enact the change at the presidential level that we were hoping for with Bernie Sanders, but we can get the ball rolling for 2020 and beyond. 

Because third party isn’t viable for president, yet, but we absolutely can make it viable in the future. We can stop this cycle of Republican vs Democrat and inject our own choice into future election cycles, but it takes planning and commitment. It’s a long game that starts in our individual states, with third party governors, House Representatives, and Senators. If we start voting people outside of the Dem/Rep duality into higher office, we can help to make a third party presidential candidate viable. 

A third party presidential candidate needs support. They need senators and representatives endorsing them and singing their praises the way the Democrats did for Clinton and Sanders. They need conventions and they need party offices in cities across the country. They need groundswell and they need infrastructure in place to run a large scale campaign. And most importantly, they need us. We can make the changes we want, we can fix all of the broken things we see if only we stick together and do what it takes to keep this country whole.

And so, I implore you to vote Clinton this year. It’s one tick mark, but it can mean the world of difference. Save your dissension vote for the rest of the ticket. Vote Third Party all the way down, but please, make sure to vote Clinton if for no other reason than to make sure our country survives so that we can try again in 4 years.