It sounds like this is a trolley problem question…obviously the problem is often used to explore values/choices (one vs many, old vs young, doctor vs lawyer). But one answer I have heard is that some people wouldn’t touch the lever at all, because they aren’t responsible for the initial situation, but involvement would make them culpable for the outcome.
Respectfully, that never sat well with me. In my eyes, not making a choice, not getting involved, is also a choice. If you know about the situation and have time and ability to act… you are responsible for the outcome. That’s just my view.
I’ve written this elsewhere and I’ll repeat it, I don’t believe there is a meaningful choice on Gaza/Israel in this election. I don’t mean that in a dismissive or minimizing way, that it is not important, that it is not horrific. But the trolley problem is Gaza on one track and Gaza+US on the other. 75 million people are not going to suddenly vote for a third party; a third party vote is at best the same as abstaining. And both are saying, I don’t care who wins they are the same to me. And if you truly believe that, OK, yes, make that statement.
But there are other issues. There is climate, there’s abortion rights, there’s the war in Ukraine and Russian nuclear saber-rattling, there’s healthcare and welfare, there’s Social security, there’s immigration, and there’s all the BS in Project 2025.
So… I don’t think there is room for Brexit style protest votes, assuming everyone else will keep the worst option from happening. Again, just what I think.
I think lesser of two evils isn’t quite the way I’d describe how I feel about Harris. I agree with madgeylou that I think she’s currently walking a fine line between supporting the Biden administration while she’s still VP, and differentiating herself as a candidate. Right now, she’s not the one making decisions, Biden is. I’m not convinced she will make the same decisions once she is in office.
My views are also affected by sitting through close elections where a third party candidate was a major spoiler. I was too young to vote in 2000, but on a smaller scale, I lived in Minnesota during the Franken/Coleman senate election. Knowing Minnesota’s history of actually electing third party candidates, I voted for Dean Barkley. (I did not 100% agree with any of the candidates, but liked him the best at the time.) The initial count came up with Coleman winning by 200ish votes. After a long, drawn-out recount, Franken eventually won by another 300ish votes. I regretted note voting for Franken.
My views on voting now are more complicated and nuanced than can probably be distilled into one forum post. I don’t see politicians as absolutes, and I do not view voting once every four years as my only civic duty.
I do not like our two party system, AND I accept that in practice it’s the framework we have in this moment. So I do my best to vote for a candidate who can possibly win and will most effectively work in the direction I want my city/state/country to go. But I vote how I vote AND I work in the meantime to push the person in office towards better positions/actions AND also try to change our system for the better. I hold all those things to be true. If anyone can’t bring themselves to vote for someone with a horrific stance on any one issue, I can understand that. But like I said before, I don’t see my vote as an endorsement of every single thing that politician does, I see it as one possible tool to get us pointed in the general direction of all the issues combined. It certainly doesn’t stop there.
The GOP is suing in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Caroline to add extra scrutiny to overseas ballots. Scuttlebutt is that the GOP is aiming to attack expat ballots, but this is also how the military votes, both nationally and internationally. That includes my vote, and fuck that.
If you happen to vote in any of those states, it would be great if you were willing to call your reps, and express disfavour.
As anecdata, when I voted in WA (which has peaceably been 100% mail in ballots since early 2000’s, gosh) my signature was challenged and I had to proved extra proof I was actually me. The system is secure.
Also, as more of a rant, what the everloving space aliens does the GOP think they’re going to get long term from destabilizing faith in the security of the US voting system. What goes around comes around. Gosh again.