From Robert Reich Blog
I continue to hear from many people who call themselves progressives or liberals, but tell me they won't vote for Hillary Clinton in the upcoming election.
With due respect, I believe they're wrong.
Herewith, their three major arguments and my responses.
Some claim she's no better than Donald Trump. "He's bad, but she's just as bad," they say.
I'm sorry, but anyone who equates Trump with Clinton hasn't been paying attention.
Donald Trump is a dangerous, bigoted, misogynistic, narcissistic megalomaniac with fascist tendencies. If elected president he could wreak irreparable damage on America and the world.
Hillary isn't perfect but she's able and experienced. I've known her for almost 50 years and worked with her closely in her husband's administration. She will make a good president.
There is simply no comparison.
Others claim that even if she's better than Trump, she's still corrupt, and they won't vote for the "lesser of two evils."
But even if you see Hillary Clinton as the "lesser of two evils," the greater of two evils in this case is seriously evil.
It's frequently the case in a democracy that one votes for someone who's less than perfect when the alternative is someone who's far worse. That's the way our "winner-take-all" democracy is organized. It's why we end up with two parties.
It's also why voting for a third-party candidate typically harms the candidate closest in values or ideology to that third-party candidate (remember the election of 2000?).
Voting for someone who doesn't meet your ideals when the alternative is someone who falls much further from those ideals doesn't mean you've sold out or compromised your principles. You're just being realistic and practical.
Realism and practicality are critically important now.
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