I am very lucky to live in a state that will allow me to vote for a true progressive instead of a wall street crony or a bigoted wall street crony.
I know, the knee jerk reaction is “a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump!” and this will annoy the Clinton supporters. Sorry, I can’t vote for her. She is too wall street, too dirty, too much a politician. Yeah, she is slightly better than Trump, but only a little. But by not voting for her will do nothing to prevent her from winning but voting for Stein will send a very strong message to the Democratic party that I was not happy with their dirty tricks on Sanders, refusing to back progressive ideas and generally playing politics with our lives.
Here is why my voting for Stein (or any third party for that matter) will not cause Trump to win: I live in Kentucky.
Trump is 12 to 19% a head of Clinton even after all the scandals. He is so far ahead in this state he is not bothering to advertise, run events, or talk about it. Clinton is not either. This is not a battle ground state, it is a write off state. Both sides basically have said, lets put our effort where we are close.
Because of that I feel free to vote to send a message to the party that is not doing a good job representing me. I’m voting for Stein. I would love to see the third party candidate in non-battle ground states walk away with 20% or more of the vote. That would send a major message, more than writing in Sanders name (considering that most states won’t count write in’s unless the person fills out a form asking them to be counted).
In my neighborhood there still more Sanders signs in yards than Clinton or Trump. The people i’ve talked with are still trying to understand how Clinton won our district since every informal nose count showed Sanders with a major level of support.
Kentucky is not going to go for Clinton even if every vote for a third party went to her and we had 100% turn out. So i’m going to make my vote count in sending a message to the party that if they want to keep me, they need to back progressive candidates not wall street cronies.