In about sixteen months we will once again find ourselves celebrating our nation’s favorite holiday. It's a day where people from all backgrounds and social strata come together as a community to berate each other. Truly a blessed day. Brothers will disavow their sisters. Children their parents. Oh! I can still smell the sweet aroma in the air. Do you smell it? It’s a unique blend of contempt and distrust served piping hot in a mug made of political hackery and us vs. them end-of-the-world rhetoric. Maybe it’s just nostalgia but there’s something about watching friends and family tear each other apart on Facebook that makes me feel all warm inside and reminds me why we do this every four years. I mean, it’s just the perfect day. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Tuesday than to decide which part of my soul I’m going to tear off so that I can justify giving my approval to whichever of the two (pant)suits our overlords on Fox News and CNN have deemed worthy. Then, half-souled, I get to try to explain my decision to everyone else. Of course, there are the old scrooges: self-hating little monsters who get a sort of sick pleasure from throwing away all the old traditions. They even sometimes sign off in favor of a third person! An unapproved candidate! I know it sounds absurd but such people do exist. They think because both of the options (so graciously afforded to them) are morally reprobate shells spewing teleprompted nonsense that they have the right to spurn the sacred rituals. On this most holy day of all days! I have been thinking a lot about what I am going to do come 2020. I do not want to vote for Trump. I think he is a racist, sexist, idiotic, conspiring, godless egomaniac who cares about no one other than himself. His rhetoric and refusal to condemn others’ rhetoric only serves to tear apart the country. The way he has handled the border crisis is a complete disaster, his Muslim ban was reprehensible, and on a lighter note I think his tariffs are idiotic. I was leaning towards voting for him anyway (the devil you know sort of thing) because the Democrats have made it exceedingly obvious that they are not interested in my vote. In the run up to this election they’ve made it quite clear that they have no problem with the murder-by-neglect of born-alive babies in addition to the murder-by-murder they’ve always endorsed for pre-born babies. Governors Northam and Cuomo have made quite a name for themselves. They have an utter contempt for the values on which this nation was founded and insist that despite everything this country provides, it is a hell-hole. Somehow they managed to make Bernie look like just another one of the gang by out-socializing and out-promising each other (“When I am class president we will have free ice-cream every day”). I don’t worry so much about how we are going to pay for these programs as how we are going to pay for bread when the world economy crashes under the weight of our $22.5 trillion debt (and counting). They refuse to do anything about the crisis on the border because they much prefer blaming Trump. They are quick to dox children for wearing MAGA hats and smiling, applaud the harassment of a baker, and advocate for court-packing and electoral college trashing. This was enough to make me strongly consider voting for Trump in 2020. If it is a culture war, I sure as hell didn’t want to be left without a side. Then Trump went and tweeted to four elected officials that they should go back where they came from. It wasn’t the worst thing Trump has done, but it was a wake-up call for me. He’s not going to stop the racist dog-whistling. His base isn’t going to embrace any sort of guiding principles above owning the libs. The GOP will continue to pander to him and explain away everything he does until we are left with a sad ugly nationalism with nothing to do but lash out without anything to actually offer. I can see how one will vote for Trump, but I will not. I can see how one will vote for (insert Democratic candidate), but I will not. The funny thing is that I expect to get a lot more criticism for choosing to vote for a third party, spoiler candidate, or independent than I would ever get for just choosing the Republican or Democrat. I will be left tribeless and open to attack from both sides. Both sides will say that by not voting for their side I am voting for the other. This, of course, is nonsense. This seems to assume the votes are already reserved to one side and by not voting red I am taking a vote away from red, or vice versa. No, my vote is uncommitted and free to be thrown away wherever I choose. Our country has been choosing the lesser of two evils for as long as I’ve been following politics (not very long I admit). The prevailing wisdom is to not throw away your vote on anyone not represented by an elephant or a donkey. This is only wisdom to those who profit from the two party system. If everyone stopped thinking that voting outside this system was only a waste of time, then we would be free it. I am not overly excited by Howard Schultz but he started with double digits in polling. He won’t have a shot because everyone knows he won’t have a shot, and it’s important to stress this because if he thinks he has a shot he’ll probably cost the Democrats the election. Rep. Justin Amash just left the Republican Party. He might run for president as an independent and they say that will cost Trump the election. People want to vote for anyone else other than the options they are given, but they won’t because they are afraid of letting the other side win. This is a desperately broken way of electing the leader of the most powerful country in the world. Pundits and columnists like to blab on about how we live in a politically unstable time. Yet, they cannot imagine a world in which the status quo is challenged. MSNBC would rather have President Trump than President Amash because the two party system fuels outrage and ratings and clicks. Fox News is the same. The ruling class will protect itself above all else (just ask Jeffrey Epstein). The current system is making them money. I’m going to vote in the way that I believe leaves my soul most intact and, by some miracle, might throw a wrench in this whole system. I am sorry if the candidate you most despise wins by the single vote I didn’t cast correctly. This holiday season I don’t expect I will be feeling very festive. *** Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the lord!
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