New polling results suggest many millennials are shunning both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and embracing third party candidates. Bernie Sanders joined Clinton this week appealing to millennials to come back home to the Democratic Party.
However, maybe former Sanders strategic advisor Tad Devine should go on the road to speak to Sanders supporters. Sanders supporters know Devine and he understands how third party candidates can elect Republicans. He was chief strategist for Al Gore in the 2000 race running against George Bush. The election came down to Florida where Bush was ahead by 537 votes when the Supreme Court ended the count. The third party candidate Ralph Nader received 97,000 votes in Florida, most likely taken from Gore that handed the election to Bush. Younger voters may not remember or be aware of the damage third party voting caused in 2000.
Devine can explain to millennials that a protest vote, a no vote or a wasted vote will elect Trump just as it gave the world George Bush in 2000. We know climate change is an important issue to millennials. We also know Gore has been the leader on addressing climate change with his Climate Reality organization. Imagine the progress the world would have made on climate change had Al Gore been elected president in 2000. Gore has done more to raise the issue of climate change that anyone in the world.
Does anyone believe Al Gore would have invaded Iraq as Bush did following 9/11? Many argue that the Iraq invasion was the trigger that unleashed the Middle East chaos. The world would be a far better place had votes for a third party candidate not given the presidency to George Bush. That’s the message millennials need to consider. Voting third party may make millennials feel they can punish Clinton or the Democratic Party for alleged sins. Some may feel a third party vote is a vote based on principle. Some may just be disillusioned and have given up on voting.
The hard fact is that millennials will be riding the same bus as the rest of us. The driver we put behind the wheel will either keep us all on the road or drive us all into the ditch. A third party vote will likely put an unstable, unprepared and erratic Donald Trump in that seat. There are only two candidates that will be our driver; no third party candidate can win. Millennials must decide whether they want to ride in the bus with Trump at the wheel for four years. Do they want to ride with a guy who verbally runs over women, Latinos, Muslims, Veterans and Gold Star families?
In a recent New York Times poll, more than one third of millennials said they will support Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, or Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate. That poll shows Johnson with 26 percent and Ms. Stein with 10 percent. It appears that many of the former Sander’s supporters are choosing a third party alternative rather than supporting Clinton. The Clinton campaign is well aware of the slippage among millennials. They have called out the big guns reminding the millennials that a third party vote is a vote for Trump. President Obama, Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders are on the road this week reminding third party voters or non-voters that their vote will elect Trump.
This election will have dramatic consequences for all of us, including millennials. Hopefully, they will reconsider a third party vote before they turn the keys over to Trump.
by Rick Smith
Posted 9/30/16
7 Comments on "No Vote Or Third Party Vote Is A Vote For Trump"
Here’s the problem,it’s not a protest vote. It’s a vote for change that is drastically needed in order to return this country to its people . Voting for Hillary only gets you a continuation of the status-quo, and Trump may bring change but not the kind that’s needed, as he, and his backers will destroy this county as we know it. But what the pundits don’t understand that voting for the lesser of two evils doesn’t accomplish a damn thing, and that’s why young people are sick, and tired of same old routine.
If everyone had the guts that millenials have in voting for a third party, they could stop saying: “you only have two choices”. If we all had a backbone to stand against being threatened by who we’d “better” vote for “or else” then we wouldn’t be “third”, we’d be first. It’s time we all showed some courage.
Yes. And the Democratic Party will continue to be a corporate party, oblivious to issues of war and poverty, unless it sees that a more populist stance would appeal to more voters. Even after Bernie Sanders drew so many voters, HRC still chose the non-progressive Caine as her running mate.
We are so fortunate to live in a country where, even when both major parties nominate flawed and unacceptable candidates, we still have the option to vote for other candidates who better represent our hopes and aspirations for our country. Right or left, Liberal or Green, Progressive or Conservative, there are better options. A vote for one of these is a clear statement to both Republicans and Democrats that we won’t accept the level of candidates they are nominating.
A vote for anyone other than Clinton is a vote for Trump. You can try to sell it any other way you want. But if the unthinkable happens and Trump is the President, I for one will never quit saying “I told you so” when your vote negatively impacts someone that you love.
Millennial should vote for Trump and the change they desire. If you saw the quote today Hillary mocked millennials for living with their parents and bering dissatisfied with what the Democratic party has brought them. Its time that millennial realized that they only thing the Democrats offer is taking their vote for granted.
Look at the plight of African Americans. They live in poverty and fear of their lives under Democratic Party plantation rules. In Chicago there have been 4,000 shootings and 400+ murders this year, mostly African Americans died. What do Democrats do … blame guns, blame white cops and Republicans. The guns are stolen so gun laws have nothing to do with the murders. African Americans not cops are killing African Americans. Since Democrats control Chicago and Illinois the conditions in Chicago fall directly to Democrats.
Millennials should thumb their noses at Clinton.
Gore and the Democrats lost the 2000 election. Stop repeating the Nader myth. If it is true, and I hope it is, that Sanders supporters are turning to Stein as I have (I am 71 and not a millennial), it is a reassuring sign that politics might actually mean something. Hillary seems to believe this is true. She should not send Bernie out to do her work, but she should make a strong pivit toward the Green Party and its four foundational pillars: Nonviloence, Ecological Wisdom, Social and Economic Justice, Grassroots Democracy. I would vote for her if she would come out as a Peace and Nonviolence candidate. She say she would cut military, defense, Pentagon, and NSA funding by 20% each of the four years she is in office (or 8) and transfer that money to clean energy research, production, and implementation. That would give her the left wing, the progressive wing, and the Sanders supporters. It would also give the nation a fresh clean breath of air in an ugly political atmosphere.