I have never understood the concept of a protest vote. They can cause an election to be delivered to the candidate who is the furthest away from the voters’ beliefs. (See Gore/Bush 2000, where some portion of the left decided that there was no difference between the two candidates, voted for Bush, and brought us the Iraq war, another 8 years of climate change ignoring, and a locked-up conservative Supreme Court that gutted the voting rights act, gave us citizens united and on and on.)
In other words, by voting on the basis of what was no more than a meme (no difference! corporate tool!) the Nader voters helped destroy what they supposedly cherished. And, other than the wreckage that caused, no one listened to their protest.
Not again. This year, we have the opportunity to almost literally destroy the Republican Party. We have the chance to drive the Tea Party into non-existence, we have the opportunity to control the Supreme Court. In 2010, the “protesters” promised to stay home in an effort to make Obama pout. The result was a Republican sweep, which turned over numerous state legislatures to the Republicans who then proceeded to gerrymander the hell out of the country. Good protest, folks. The message you sent was “the American people want more conservatives and love the tea party.” We have been living with THAT for the last six years.
Clinton, through all appearances, is headed to an enormous victory. But to decimate the Republicans, we need as many states as possible. And there are red states we could win if the protest voters would decide what really matters — whether Americans have access to health care or not, whether the minimum wage goes up or not, whether the Supreme Court is liberal or not.
Take a couple of examples. In Iowa and South Carolina, Clinton is two points from being tied with Trump — essentially a tie. That EXACT amount of separation is going to Jill Stein. What is it that attracts her voters? Her opposition to childhood vaccination? Her belief that she can make all policy changes through executive order? The total lack of any chance that she will win?
Then there are the “Bernie didn’t win so I will vote for Trump” people. I don’t even know how to address these folks. Were they ever really Bernie supporters? Are they like the Joker in The Dark Knight, and just want to burn things down to see what happens? If they are in any way connected to the beliefs of Bernie, they should not play games with democracy.
But if these folks insist on protest voting — a protest that will be heard by no one — they must vote down ballot for democrats. You want a liberal supreme court? Then give Clinton a Senate majority. You want the most liberal legislation possible? Then flip the House (something that is very hard to do because of all the “protest” voters who sat out of 2010.)
Protest voting accomplishes nothing other than undermining the best chance for the protesters to get what they want. True change is often incremental and you have to fight for every step of the way (that is what my handle means in Hungarian.) Don’t sit home from the fight. Join in. Create the possibility for change by putting those most likely to listen to you in office. And then fight like hell some more to drive them further to the left.