Guess it’s Jill Stein 2020 for me!
I would never vote for the Green party, but it's crazy how many people are attacking you for exercising your right to vote outside of the Democrat/Republican hegemony.
Jill Stein (who won't even run again in 2020 anyway) seems like a great leftist alternative when you disregard the fact that she doesn't know anything about anything and you genuinely believe that there is no difference between the Democratic nominee and Donald Trump.
I was a registered member of the Green Party on election day 2016. I nearly voted for Jill Stein. I came so close because I was so certain that Hillary was going to win that I thought "hey, who cares? My vote won't make a difference, so why not?" but then I paused and I thought "well, if I vote for Jill Stein and Hillary somehow loses, I'm gonna feel really stupid." So you know what I did? I voted for Hillary. I didn't like her, I staunchly supported Bernie in the primary, I left the Democrats because they nominated Hillary, and I still voted for her. You know why? Because I knew that there was a huge difference between her and Trump. That has only become more apparent these past 2 years and change.
Voting for a third party when Donald Trump stands a chance to be re-elected as President demonstrates the type of recklessness that would lead folks weaker than you or I to believe that such a privilege should not be afforded to some people. In normal circumstances, a protest vote is perfectly within reason. And we can have those discussions about the Republican/Democrat stranglehold on electoral politics, but only when we return to normalcy, if that's ever possible after this President leaves office.
I'm not a Democratic loyalist, but I know when it's time to stop goofing off and treat this President like someone who poses a real threat to real people in this country. There's only one way to defeat him, and that's through the ballot box.
Why should someone feel to compelled vote for someone who you don't want to vote for? People run as alternative candidates for a reason, and the only way the system that you yourself seem so let down by will change is by showing the major parties that are are demand for alternative parties and policies. Strategic voting is unfortunately prevalent, but it shouldn't be encouraged. The only way that the political duopoly is going to change is if another party (Green, Libertarian, whatever) manages to attract enough support that it becomes maybe not even a major party, but a force which one party or the other will have to understand and adapt to.
It was incredibly disappointing to the the Libertarians shoot themselves in the foot in 2016 where they could have made it over the 5% hurdle and received national funding and ballot access. I don't believe 2020 is their year, but I do believe that another party reach that bar in 2020, from the right or the left.
I understand where your coming from, but I refuse to believe that the right solution is to settle for the lesser of two evils, when your ballot enables you to support those who you care about.
