I think it's fair to say everybody knows the United States 2016 Presidential Election is a complete joke. I've seen polls showing major candidates at less than 30 percent, and personally, I know very few people who actively admit to liking either of the main candidates. Frankly, saying that both candidates are terrible is starting to remind me of the term "postulate" from high school geometry class, where it is becoming so obvious that any argument against it is nonexistent.
However, the problem is not that both of our major candidates are terrible choices. On its own, that actually isn't that hard of a problem to solve. The problem also isn't that there are people who support either candidate for their individual merit. If you support Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton off of their political platform, more power to you. Go campaign for them, vote for them, and be proud of it. I'll disagree, but I will still respect your opinion. In fact, you could talk about why you like the political positions of Mao Zedong, or describe why you are voting a write-in for Waka Flocka Flame, and while I would disagree, I'd hear out your opinion.
The problem is the methodology we are resorting to when it comes to making our choices. This election has proved one thing: that fear-mongering is a powerful weapon. Personally, I've seen few people describe why they support Trump, and literally zero people describe why they support Clinton, without mentioning their opposition. Congrats. You fell into the trap. You let fear blind you, grab you by the ankles, and pull you right down into the same cycle that's lasted for decades. You feel that "lesser of the evils" is a problem to solve later, or you might feel that politics is a collective action problem that will never be solved.
"This election is different." I don't think that it is, but let's go ahead and look at that possibility anyway. Even if it is the case, you already blew it. The exact same thing was said in 2008, and again in 2012. The animosity against Obama and Romney was so strong people felt like they had to give in and vote for a perceived lesser of the evils. We've had every chance to say, "maybe this is enough," but we never did. Saying something like, "We will vote for who we actually want next time" is about as ridiculous as saying, "Maybe the Cleveland Browns will finally do well this season." Pick nearly any subject you want, and "next time" probably is not a good way to look at things. Saying this election is different is the same as the boy who cried wolf. You said it so many times that it no longer holds any value. The same people saying "Trump is the worst candidate ever" said the same thing about Romney and Bush. Maybe if you guys supported candidates you actually cared about in the past, then we wouldn't even be in this mess.
I cannot stress this enough: vote for who you want. If you don't want Trump to be president, vote for somebody other than Trump. If you don't want Clinton to be president, vote for somebody other than Clinton. I could go on a long rant about why voting third-party, independent, or write-in does not take votes away from a major party, mainly because it lies on the assumption that each non-major party vote would otherwise support a major candidate which is simply not true, but I'll save that for another day. I'm tired of hearing, "I don't support Hillary, but..." because people blatantly ignore the first four words of that sentence. If you don't support somebody, but you still vote for them, that makes zero sense. If you say, "I don't support Trump, but I'm voting for him so Clinton doesn't take office," you just admitted to voting for a candidate you don't support.
Seriously, let's drop the fear and negativity and try to look at politics in a different light.
