So, there’s a lot of USians around who are very clearly fucking fed up with their political choices this election cycle, and planning to sit it out.
And I get it! What’s the point of voting if there’s no one to vote for?
The thing is, I’m Australian. In Australia, voting is compulsory. We don’t get to sit out our elections, and I’ll be real honest with you - we don’t exactly get better choices than you lot. So how do you vote if there’s no one to vote for? You find someone to vote against. And there’s always someone to vote against.
Now, we have the pleasure of preferential voting in Australia - We get to rank every candidate from 1 to X, and I’ll tell you, there’s something so cathartic about putting the biggest bastard of the lot at the very bottom of your preferences. I understand that USians don’t get that option - you get to mark one person, and that’s it.
That means that you get one shot, so aim it at the biggest bastard of the lot. The candidate you most utterly detest. Put your vote in the worst possible place for them. Don’t even think about who that vote’s going towards, that’s not the point. Remember, every vote is a vote against someone. Make sure you fuck up that someone’s election day!
I saw a post forever ago that basically put it as Primaries are where you choose your Fighter, Elections Proper are where you choose your opponent. And I’ve thought ever since that’s the best explanation of it I’ve ever seen.
And as it stands, not voting for the mainstream Democrat does nothing but help the Republican. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. That’s all it does. Which is a fantastic case for being a single issue voter if anyone ever pushes for National scale preferential voting.If it helps, think of it this way. You get 2 vote points per vote. Anything other than voting Democrat or Republican is essentially throwing away the vote, but it’s not a 0. It’s 1 point to Blue and 1 point to Red to stay “neutral”. Still a point going to Red, and that’s just math.