Of Course a Left Third Party Vote is a Vote for Trump

The simple reality of November and what's at stake

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

A friend of mine recently posted that “a vote for Jill Stein isn’t a vote for Trump, but a vote for decency and sanity.”

I disagree with her on both counts.

That’s exactly what it is (a vote for Trump) and she knows that, otherwise she wouldn’t need to generate a meme to defend a position she realizes is problematic.

Practically speaking, a progressive or liberal vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Trump.
A vote for Cornel West is a vote for Trump.
A vote for Robert Kennedy Jr. is a vote for Trump.
A vote for NoLabels is a vote for Trump.
Any vote right now that doesn’t intentionally protect this nation from the MAGA movement is participating in it and putting generations of Americans in harm’s way.

The fact that so many refuse to acknowledge this is evidence that they haven’t been paying attention or lack self-awareness.

This same strident, selfish, and shortsighted attitude from Jill Stein supporters and Bernie or Busters in recent election cycles, helped pave the way for the dismantling of Roe V Wade and tens of millions of women losing their right to body autonomy.

That’s what bust became.
There was a cost to that stance and it’s now being paid by terrified young women throughout this nation.
It’s being paid by transgender teenagers.
It’s being paid by Muslims and Jews.
It’s being paid by migrant families.
It’s being paid by poor and hungry people.
It’s being paid by everyone at the mercy of a weaponized Supreme Court.

That’s what bust looks like.

Many progressives and liberals point to the perceived lack of response from the Biden Administration to the horrors in Gaza as their moral dealbreaker, a bridge too far for them to support him or his party.

I understand that position on an emotional and even moral level but not an intellectual one. I just don’t see any of these people playing the movie ahead a few months:

If they make this supposed moral stand in defense of Palestinians and Muslims, and in doing so help usher in a second Trump term—how is that good for anyone?

Which of the people they’re trying to help by rejecting Biden, will be helped by another Trump presidency?
Specifically who gains human or civil rights in this scenario?
How precisely is anyone safer or healthier, here or in Gaza or anywhere?
How is empowering MAGA Republicans going to do anything but further endanger Muslims, immigrants, Palestinians at home and abroad?

I’m going to safely assume that between the Democratic and Republican Parties, the latter is least compatible with the beliefs and values of the progressives and liberals intending or threatening to vote third party.

If that's true and these people do vote third party—that's the one they'll be helping win in November. They will be aiding the GOP and inviting its chaos and vitriol and lawlessness.

In other words, by allowing Gaza to turn them into single-issue voters, progressives will knowingly be placing healthcare, education, immigration, the environment, marriage rights, gun violence, voting rights, women’s rights—everything—in the hands of a traitorous, several-times indicted rapist and insurrectionist whose contempt for diverse humanity and the laws of the land are complete and sociopathic.

I’m not sure how that’s an expression of decency or sanity by any measure.

As a lifelong registered Independent, I believe this nation desperately needs to cultivate other viable political parties in order to become the nation we could be. But I’m also a student of history and someone who's paying attention, and who is believes that the precise urgency of this election means that this is not the time to fight that battle. We’re trying to avoid the greatest single existential threat of our nation’s lifetime, and that is the single issue I’m voting on this year.

As much as we vote ideologically and morally we also need to vote strategically and wisely. The Right has learned this, which is why they have gained the upper hand in so many ways. They understand the power of the collective to accomplish their greater goals.

My friends on the Left often lament the limited choices of the two-party system and I agree with them. However, if Trump and his sycophantic party regain power, we will be permanently reduced to a one-party system and none of us will have options again.

That’s what is at stake here.

That’s the naked, unadorned truth.

Either the Democratic or Republican candidate will be president in ten months.

Those are the only two realities.

There is no other possible outcome.

This isn't a game.

We can't f*ck this up.

Too many people's lives are in the balance.

I share my friend’s disgust at the genocide in Gaza and I also believe we need new political parties to adapt to the needs of these days.

But I will not cut off my nose to spite my face.

I won’t let the momentary satisfaction of a figurative middle finger allow me to be reckless or wasteful with my vote.

I will not willfully sacrifice tens of millions of people on the altar of a performative political protest that does nothing but empower and embolden an unredeemable sociopath like Donald Trump.

That would be neither decent nor sane.