The conventions are finished. The 2016 Presidential campaign is on. It’s not heating up, it was already pretty hot. It’s not getting into full combat mode, it was already in full combat mode.
There is a substantial populist movement that is, with good cause, quite upset. They feel that the primary election and the Democratic Presidential nomination were stolen from them and, more accurately, from their standard-bearer. They are right, it was.
Well, let’s put it this way, there was a concerted effort put into stealing the election and the nomination. The party’s candidate won. It is not really possible to know what the outcome would have been because the actions to rig the process were so diverse.
There are many cries of I’m not voting for and I’m voting for.
The title of this article came from that famous American philosopher, Yogi Berra. The advice comes from another, Stephen Stills.
I think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?
Today is July 31. Nobody is voting for anyone today. The election is November 8, 100 days from now.
In a normal election year, having already chosen a candidate to vote for would be reasonable. This is not a normal election year, however.
Of the two major party candidates, one, Donald Trump, the Republican, is being investigated for fraud and is widely unpopular for his unreasonable and hateful positions on important subjects. The other, Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, has committed crimes outlined by the FBI after a long investigation, for which the Justice Department has decided to not prosecute. However, there are other pending problems.
The primary progressive contender, Bernie Sanders, has conceded. The next most popular progressive candidate, Jill Stein of the Green Party, has become the primary progressive candidate. However, there is a second alternative candidate, Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party.
The situation is complicated by the arcane Electoral College process of electing the president. That process has in the past, occasionally resulted in the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide not being elected president. Popular vote is only rather remotely related to electoral vote.
If one candidate does not receive the required 270 electoral votes, the House of Representatives will elect the president, choosing from the three candidates with the highest electoral vote count. The House is now overwhelmingly Republican. Complicating the situation further, the Senate would elect the vice president, choosing from the two candidates with the highest electoral vote count. The Senate currently has a Republican majority.
Right now, neither of the alternative candidates has sufficient popularity to win the election. Being that there are two of them, the risk increases of not having sufficient popularity to win the required number of electoral votes, but at the same time either might have enough votes to force the election into the House and Senate. On the other hand, given the ongoing troubles and investigations, one or both of the two major candidates may disappear from the race before the election.
The best course of action to follow today is to provide support to your chosen candidate. Don’t worry about impossible or long shot. At the beginning of November, take a careful look at legitimate independent and professional polling results to determine if voting for your chosen candidate may result in an unintended consequence.
On November 8, vote your conscience, but make sure that results in a situation that your conscience can be comfortable with.
HW