I know people don't like being told what they should or shouldn't do, and so my statements below will probably not be that popular, but I'll go ahead anyway:
We have a secret ballot. Whether or not someone votes is their own business.
It should be easy to vote and if someone doesn't like the choices why should they vote?
Because at the end of the day, people should think of their country and not if they personally like that person or not. Regardless if they like it or not, someone will get elected president in November and it's a extremely high likelihood that it will be R or D. If a 3rd party is possible, it will show in the polls. If a 3rd party you like has a real chance and their candidate is competent / qualified, you should vote for them for sure. If they have no chance, you're just wasting a vote. With this in mind, people should vote both on who is running on policies that most closely match their own
and have the best chance of winning. That's what we are voting for, right? We all want the country going in a certain direction I would imagine, and we aren't just voting for a candidate because they crack funny jokes or may look photogenic in the oval office.
I get why some Democrat-leaning people may not want to support, say, Clinton. If they think she is corrupt, then they think to themselves:
"I can't support a corrupt politician! I'll stay home!" Well, guess what, Trump is even worse and you staying home only helps the opposition install a reckless, unstable and unqualified buffoon as the leader of our country. So I ask, how does staying home help anything? What does it accomplish? Maybe it makes the person doing it feel better that they didn't "cave", but that doesn't help their country at all. There are real issues at stake here. A Republican federal trifecta
will have serious consequences for this country. Trump will be filling SCOTUS seats. So again, I ask, how does staying home help anything? You may feel good about it for some reason, but all you did was help push the country in a worse direction
(from a Democratic perspective)Folks need to understand that this is bigger than them. If we get 2 bad candidates, one should pick the least terrible candidate. It's going to be one of those two, so why help the worst one get elected? It doesn't even make a freakin sense unless you think about it from a selfish perspective. There are a lot of people in this country that will legitimately be affected, some severely, if things like PPACA are repealed or labor rights weakened. And frankly, anyone who cares about overturning CU should know that Clinton is their only hope, and she has every reason to appoint liberal justices who will overturn CU. One really has no standing to complain about special interests corrupting elections with campaign donations if they stay home or vote in a way that hurts her. She is the only option
that has a chance of winning. I think this idea applies to numerous other things. I'm not trying to bully here - It's just a cold, hard fact.
Whether voting should be mandatory is an interesting issue, but many don't vote because
it is not mandatory. Why don't people vote? Why should they? Nobody should tell me
how to vote or whether to vote and whether I vote or how I vote is nobody's business.
I've always seen this as such an American thing to say. Yes, it would be bad if you were forced into a booth and forced to vote a certain way. But being required to cast some sort of vote is not such a bad thing. I support mandatory voting in the sense that people should be required to show up and cast a ballot, even if it's empty. I think people take for granted our elections and institutions. Sure, they are far from perfect but compared to the world in general, citizens have the chance at legitimate input and squander it because they are lazy, apathetic or even spiteful.
I wish mandatory voting wasn't even a topic of conversation, like, ever. But here we are, millions and millions and millions of people who don't participate for various reasons. What happened to a sense of civic duty? The desire to make your voice heard? The elections don't stop just because you lost faith or never even had interest to begin with. By not voting, you cede more and more power to the most motivated and often, the most radical voters we have.
You know how many times in my life I have heard people bitching about our government or policy, only to comment at some point that they don't vote, or even worse, voted for someone who goes against everything they said they stood for? We need more participation and more informed voters.
"More voices, more choices" should be the motto of USA's politics, not "the lesser of two evils"
Vote your conscience if you vote at all.
Of course we should have more choices and more voices. Sometimes we get stuck in a situation where it is in fact the lesser of two evils, but it is what it is. People volunteered and supported candidates in the primaries that they actually liked and it simply did not work in this time. That is no reason to stay home or throw away a vote. As I said before, the election is not going to get cancelled just because you hate both nominees. One of these two are going to be president and people should work towards getting the least terrible
(in their eyes) candidate into office. Maybe you get shafted this time, but you work towards getting the governing coalition you want, step by step.
If you want my perspective on this election, then this is how I see it:
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Do I wish it was someone other than Clinton? Yes, but this election is too important to waste a vote or stay home on
(not that I ever would).We (Democrats/liberals) are so close to building a left-leaning federal judiciary for the first time in generations. The USSC has been mostly conservative since the 70s, and we finally have a very rare chance to reshape the court and stop the deluge of erroneous and harmful decisions
(CU, Shelby, McCutcheon, and so on). We will likely not get another chance to overturn any of those for decades if a Republican/Trump wins in November. He will fill Scalia's seat with a conservative who will surely be pro-CU, and if Kennedy resigns or passes away during his tenure, which is likely, there goes any chance at a left-leaning SCOTUS majority for decades. CU will stay and elections will be even more corrupted as time goes on.
Winning 3 terms in a row, along with Bill's 2 terms previously gives us an rare chance to leave a lasting liberal federal judiciary that will not help destroy our elections by gutting voting rights or allowing unlimited money into elections. This isn't like Congress where we have constant elections. Federal judges have lifetime appointments and so to leave a lasting impact, we need to hold on just a bit longer.
Further, even if Clinton isn't able to deliver on many of her proposals for whatever reasons, at least we can prevent a torrent of right-wing policy from being implemented. Eventually, we will retake Congress, and holding onto the White House until then will prevent Republicans from rolling back the limited progress we have made.
(Obviously when I say 'we' I mean Democrats or other liberal voters)