Alright I'm going to talk to independent, 3rd party, and other people not within the two big party's wheelhouse AND to the people in the two major parties who have strong opinions about what they should or shouldn't do.
Alright I'll be 100% honest about everything. I'm gonna talk to the people in the major parties and get them mad at me first, because they are (more or less) going to be the one I'm going to be siding with overall when all is said and done.
First of all the whole "Sure you should be able to vote your conscious... but not this time it is too important" thing is B.S. It's not B.S. because it's not true, it is. It's B.S. because that is the excuse that is always used against non-mainstream voters. My entire lifetime the standard excuse against non-mainstream voters has been some version of that. It's not like Trump is the first time the "You'll ruin everything if you don't vote with us" excuse has ever been used. Stop pretending like there's ever going to be an election where your comfortable enough with it. Every election is the end of the world. The fact that this one very well might be doesn't change that. I firmly believe that if just some regular, run of the mill Republican had gotten the nomination and won the election the "All is lost! All is lost!" language would be about... 90% the same.
If your argument is against non-mainstream voters is some variation on "Oh you can vote your way... but not this time because it's too important." then just admit that there is never going to be an election where they actually get to vote their conscious. And that's NOT fair.
The system is setup so that every major election is going to be a game of inches and non-mainstream voters votes are always going to be useless at best, counterproductive at worst. It's not their vault. YOUR two mainstream parties made it that way to consolidate their power. You can't throw that back in their faces.
That all being said, now that I've gotten all my friends from the major parties ready to unfriend me, I must now speak to the non-mainstream supporters.
Because despite everything I said to the first group, they are right... this time. Yes, yes, yes they've been using the same excuse for years and they will be using the same excuse for years. But they are right... this time.
Trump is not "Just another Republican." Yes "Wolf" has been cried about this candidate or that candidate being the end of the world so many times I know the word has lost all meaning. But here's the thing... the moral of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" was never that wolves don't exist or that they do but we should just let the sheep be eaten to teach the little boy a lesson.
Do not let this country or this world be damaged in some real, very lasting way just to get back at the people who have been crying wolf and are now crying wolf at an actual wolf.
Right now the Left is the better choice. And here's the thing. First past the post voting, the electoral college, voter suppression... the very things that make the system so broken as to make your voices either useless or counterproductive... they are are LOT more open to fixing those things then the Right is.
I get it. Mainstream politics DOES suck. That's not some try-hard, edge-lord position. And a lot of people are going to play the "We have to put aside YOUR morals to defeat Trump this time" are going to keep playing it in perpetuity. Sorry. That sucks and I can't make that not true.
But... people history has seen this story before. And it doesn't end well.
I can't tell anybody who to vote for. If you look deep into yourself and decide that you just have to vote a certain way... I won't hate you. I won't demonize you. But I am asking you to really, really think hard about it. Yes, I am asking you to participate in a broken system, to benefit one of the sides that broke it, for the sole reason that I want to see things get better and that's the only way I see it happening. That's a bitter pill. But please, swallow it, just this one time.
I get it. You really want "Show the system how rotten it is" moment. But this isn't it. Okay?
Do not give up your morals. Do no give up your passion. Do not give up your opinions. Get whoever it takes to get Trump out of office up there and once they have done that job make their lives a living hell. Swarm the polls at your local and state levels. When Trump is gone and the mainstreams play the "Oh you can't vote your way this time either, last time we mean it".. call them on it.
But none of that matters if the system falls down around our heads.
Trump isn't another crooked politician gaming the system. He's a dangerous, unhinged lunatic breaking it.
Too Long Didn't Read:
The Mainstream Voters - A lot of the excuses you use against the non-mainstream voters are hollow and self serving at best.
The non-Mainstream Voters - Those excuses are 100% valid, this one time.
