Your vote

Today's post will seem to have some inherent contradictions.

It is the right time to cover it. Monday was about how vote by mail eases voter participation, and while Tuesday was specifically about Measure 97, it was also about respectful disagreement. Maybe today's material is a natural fit.

There has been a fair amount of talk this year about not wasting your vote, because a vote for Johnson is a vote for Clinton, or a vote for Stein or Sanders is a vote for Trump. I have never liked that.

I have wondered if I would feel differently this year. If Trump did win, would I be angry at the people who voted for him and the people who didn't like him but didn't vote for Clinton? Trump is a terrible candidate, but no, I still want people to vote for whom they want.

People point to the 2000 election, and how if the 81,000 Nader voters had voted for Gore, he would have won. That's no small thing. The World Trade Center attacks might have been thwarted if you had a president who didn't dismiss intelligence that wasn't about Iraq. It could still have happened and we might even still have invaded Afghanistan for their sheltering of Al Qaeda, but I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have invaded Iraq. Lehman Brothers might not have happened, and the environment would probably be in better shape. The surplus being drained and big tax cuts that failed to stimulate the economy probably would not have happened.

That is all speculation, though the probabilities involved should be a good reminder of the hubris it took Nader to say there is no difference between the two parties. However, his supporters still should have been able to vote for Nader. The real problem was the improper purges from the Florida voter rolls and other impropriety that still barely gave W the state. Take away the manipulations of Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, and the conscience of the Nader voters doesn't hurt.

I want everyone to have their vote. We are in an election where there is a great candidate who has been slandered for so long that many voters have a totally distorted view of her and are against her for poor reasons. We have an election where the basest impulses in human nature and years of the GOP and Fox News spreading misinformation and class warfare have led to the worst candidate in human history. I can't say I don't care, because I care deeply, but I still want everyone to cast the vote they want.

So this is where we get to the contradiction, because my desire for your autonomy may be combined with my thinking your vote is stupid and abhorrent. It's not that different from "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." This is democracy, and all of the voices should be heard.

It doesn't mean I don't wish for better news sources, and better schools and education that brings back civics classes, because this process could be improved, but the improvement is not voter disenfranchisement or intimidation or apathy.

So if you wish to vote for a racist misogynistic monger of hate and fear who is unable to exercise any self-control because he sees no need to, but it may make him the worst person ever to have access to the nuclear codes, who has spent years cheating workers out of pay and still has to keep declaring bankruptcy because we need a businessman, that is your right. Have at it.

And if you hate Clinton but are scared of Trump, so you think Johnson is the answer, despite the fact that he does not feel the need to stay abreast of foreign policy on even our hot spots while running for president, and that he is against affordable health care and higher education, but pro-choice and pro-pot doesn't bother you, go for it! I am thrilled to see many of you supporting a pro-choice candidate.

Or if you think Stein, who doesn't call herself anti-vax but merely says a lot of the same things they say in the same ways and contexts, because Heaven knows the Green Party and saving the Earth shouldn't have to get bogged down in science, do it. Blessed be!

Or if you think Evan McMullin is the answer, despite the winning plan being an electoral tie between Trump and Clinton - despite Clinton's lead over Trump continuing to grow - resulting in Congress giving it to the "neutral" candidate as long as he wins one state, thus completely nullifying the votes of the residents of the other 49 states, may you live happily ever after.

Same thing with write-ins; you vote your conscience. You should.

I am voting for an extraordinary candidate, and if you support any of the others, there may be a few sentences here that feel against you. Worse has been said about mine, and I'll survive.

My conscience and brain are working together, and I am voting the way that I want. I wish the same for all of you.