Why a 3rd Party Vote is a Vote for Trump
Basically, I’m the kind of guy you would expect to be a Republican (note that I said Republican, not a Trump supporter). White, male, middle-aged, well-educated, business owner, and definitely upper class financially. And yes, if Trump were elected, I would probably actually just get richer and not be personally affected.
Except for a couple of things:
1) I’m married to an immigrant. From Pakistan. Who’s skin is darker than mine, and she’s often mistaken for Hispanic. And her (our) daughter has even darker skin, and while I’ve always had some concern that she might experience racism due to that, I’m far more worried about what will happen in an America where the racist, xenophobic tendencies of Donald Trump are given freedom of expression again. I am scared for my wife and daughter in a way that I never have been before. Yes, my wife is now a naturalized US citizen, and my older daughter will be later this year, but racists tend not to care about those kinds of details.
2) I know that I’m privileged, and it makes me extremely uncomfortable sometimes. I know of the scientific research that says how much of one’s development happens before the age of 5 due to nutrition, educational opportunities, etc, and I see so many who are deprived of those opportunities because they have no support. Sometimes the government truly is the only resource available that can help people in those circumstances. Of course, there is always an element of personal responsibility involved, and of course some people do escape poverty. But it’s so much harder than what I ever had to deal with. And I know that a government run entirely by the GOP would do a lot to cut those support programs, thereby dooming more to longer and deeper poverty than otherwise.
3) Of course I don’t like paying taxes. Who does, really? But what I like even less are things like: underfunded schools, underpaid teachers, roads and bridges and other public infrastructure being neglected (drive over the line from NC into SC and you’ll know what I mean about roads!), neglected mental health facilities or care for the homeless, etc.
I could go on and on.
Am I thrilled with Hillary Clinton as a future president? Not entirely no, but neither do I believe that she is the devil incarnate, as the GOP makes her out to be. But I look at the GOP platform and shudder in horror. And I look at the racist, mysoginistic, xenophobic, nationalist, unstable, inconsistent, and frightening figure of Donald Trump, and I am horrified at what I see. Hillary certainly has personal flaws, as do we all, and she’s made mistakes that have been examined under a microscope for 40 years in ways most of us couldn’t begin to survive, but at least she’s not narcissistic, egotistical, admiring of foreign dictators, and she supports the kinds of programs that I support for women, LGBT, minorities, etc. She mostly supports science, whereas the GOP has become virtually ANTI-science (did y’all know Trump is anti-vaccine??????)
So truly – if you’re going to vote for a 3rd party because you don’t like either Hillary or Donald as a person, take a look at the platforms each is supporting and decide which of those you want. Because those 3rd party candidates don’t stand a chance – there are only 2 choices. You will make a choice one way or the other, whether actively or passively.
Shaun King wrote a much longer and more detailed article that fleshes out my thoughts here in far greater depth: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election/king-stop-donald-trump-voting-hillary-clinton-article-1.2726614
And this article by Julia Maskivker addresses the morality of “voting for the lesser evil.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/06/01/yes-you-do-have-an-obligation-to-vote-for-the-lesser-of-two-evils-heres-why/