Let me be very clear: I am absolutely not a fan of Hillary Clinton. Throughout her political career, she has supported American Imperialism and war crimes abroad, helped lay the foundation of modern mass incarceration, and has supported neoliberal austerity policies that increase inequality and hurt the working class.
For these reasons and more, I have felt very uncomfortable with the notion of having to vote for Clinton in November. Most of the previous writing on this topic has dismissed those who feel uncomfortable voting for Clinton as “privileged.” I have many problems with this narrative. One reason being that many of those who are uncomfortable with Clinton are in fact marginalized people who feel uncomfortable voting for a woman with Hillary Clinton’s track record.
During this election, I’ve had to reconsider my belief that voting for Hillary Clinton is necessary several times. But as I thought about it more and more, the more convinced I became that not voting for Clinton would be extremely dangerous.
No matter how much I dislike Clinton, I cannot deny that Trump is much, much worse. Trump is a proto-fascist who has helped normalize blatant white supremacy. He infamously wants to deport all undocumented Mexican immigrants and ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. He has also advocated using the U.S. military to commit war crimes, including “taking out the families” of terrorists. This is just a small sample of Trump’s horrifying views, as it would be impossible to list them all.
As of late, Trump is almost tied with Clinton in the polls. Trump winning is no longer some far out chance. It is a very real possibility.
I am under no illusions that Clinton would be some progressive Messiah. But the damage that a Trump presidency would do is incalculable. His administration could erase decades of progress by the Left. With Clinton, we would be getting more of the status quo. The status quo is obviously extremely problematic, but it is still much better than what Trump is bringing to the table.
Some leftists have called me a "sellout" for deciding to vote for Clinton in November. But I don't see voting for Clinton as an endorsement of her politics. Voting is simply a political tool. It is entirely possible to vote for a candidate while disliking their politics if you think voting for that candidate will still produce the best outcome. In this case, while I may dislike Hillary Clinton's politics, a world in which she is president is still much better than a world in which Trump is president.
Many voters dissatisfied with Clinton have decided to vote third party. Perhaps I would also be tempted to do so, had this been any other election. But the stakes are simply too high for that.
Neither Jill Stein or Gary Johnson will be the next president of the United States. Neither of them will win a single state. No third party candidate has ever won the presidency in the history of the United States and that will not change this election. Thinking any third party candidate has a chance at winning is just denying reality.
And because of the U.S.'s winner-take-all system, there are barely any tangible benefits from voting for a third party. Oftentimes, I hear those planning on voting third party articulate their support as being necessary to reject the two-party system. But the two-party system has endured for all of American history, despite the existence of third parties. The two-party system will not suddenly dissolve because some people vote for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein.
While neither third party candidate has a chance of winning the election, they do have the ability to help Trump win. Trump is gaining in the polls. Several political analysts have argued that one of the major factors behind this is the fact that so many young people are abandoning Clinton in favor of third parties.
The final thing I wish to discuss is the argument that Trump winning would actually be a good thing for the Left. The argument goes that Trump would be so tyrannical, it would bring everyone to our side. This is extremely speculative at best and it ignores numerous examples of countries that had right-wing dictators and did not have successful leftist movements. Finally, I argue that a Trump administration would prevent the Left from making any sort of meaningful progress as we would be too busy playing defense against Trump.
I do not relish the thought of voting for Hillary Clinton on Election Day. But if it stops Trump from being president, I'll do it.
