#we cannot afford to continue just reacting to human rights breaches as they arrive

[antiarcticmonkeys]

This post is meant to spark discussion, not make people fight or to attack anyone, so please keep that in mind even if you don’t agree with everything I say. I’m not here to evangelize, just to give food for thought.

That being said, I’ve seen a lot of people recently propping up the “lesser of two evils” rhetoric on tumblr, and I am going to be honest: it very clearly comes from a place of fear. I understand, the political climate is frightening right now. But if we continue to approach the situation from a place of panic, prioritizing damage control, we are going to be slowly but surely overwhelmed by the amount of damage we are trying to control. We need to fight for overarching change.

Whether or not that change will come from the electoral system is debatable, but clearly voting is an exigent issue at the moment, so if you believe in that system and put your faith in it, I would urge you to consider voting for someone you don’t think is even a little bit evil. I’m not here to judge you if you’re not ready to do so this election cycle, because yes, I understand that actually getting a third-party candidate in the executive branch in 2024 is a long shot. But I really hope that if you truly want and believe in large-scale change, you have the ability to believe that even just the small change of electing a third party candidate is possible.

If you really agree that by-and-large, Democrat candidates are working against us (albeit less so than republicans), I would encourage you to work to make third-party candidates more viable instead of just accepting that you’re going to end up with a shitty politician either way.

There is plenty of time between now and the election after this one. If you want a non-evil candidate, I would urge you to do what you can to lay the groundwork for one now, so we don’t enter our next election cycle with the overwhelming sense that we have only two options and they both suck ass. The only thing standing between us and a third party win is the allure of habit and the work of organization. I would suggest you research candidates you actually like. Campaign for them, post about them, talk to your friends, family, and neighbors about them.

Every time the election cycle comes around again, we get thousands of new voters who aren’t in the habit of voting for the lesser of two evils, who may be ready for a non-evil candidate. There are many, many people who are dissatisfied with both parties. Electing a third-party candidate is not impossible, just difficult.