Thread by @dcpetterson

There was a time when it might have made sense to make a protest vote for a third-party candidate who didn't have a chance of getting elected, or to withhold your vote as an act of rebellion against the establishment.

That time is long gone.

1/12

I'm old enough to remember when Democrats and Republicans could both be sure the other party, while having radically different views on what the solutions to our national problems were, at least agreed on the shape of the basic problems. We at least shared some basic facts.

2/12

Though we disagreed on proper policy, we agreed that that United States needed to exist as a democratic republic. Its institutions of governance--the House, the Senate, the Executive, the Courts, regulatory agencies, and so on--served a purpose and needed to exist.

3/12

Though there have always been marginalized extremists, Democrats and Republicans used to agree on which foreign nations were our allies, and which were our enemies. We might disagree on details of how to treat them, but we knew who were and weren't our friends.

4/12

Back then, small political parties grew up around specific ideas, particular issues, because constituencies of those small parties wanted their pet peeves to get more national attention. Their candidates wouldn't win, but could affect the national conversation.

5/12

Often, voting for a third-party candidate--or not voting at all--meant sacrificing the major party candidate with whom you most closely agreed. That was seen as worth the cost, because:

A) it could force the major parties to start talking about your issue

but also:

6/12

B) allowing a candidate of the "wrong" major party to get elected wouldn't endanger the every existence of the nation.

You see, back then, Democrats and Republicans agreed that America should survive as a free and democratic state,

7/12

With protest votes, the wrong Congress or POTUS would move in the wrong direction, but that wouldn't be fatal to America.

This is no longer true.

Republicans are now enslaved to a fascist would-be god-king, who is himself a puppet of an enemy nation who put him in power.

8/12

Republicans have sold whatever bits of souls they ever had, and no longer care about America.

Protest voting will no longer send any sort of "message" to anyone. It'll have only one effect: to strengthen the growing fascist movement now systematically dismantling America,

9/12

Make no mistake: there are only two (2) parties on the ballot. Anyone who isn't a Democrat is a fascist.

Even the third-party candidates who pretend to be ultra-super-mega-leftists are really fascists, because they know the stakes.

10/12

Even the fake "progressive" third-party candidates know damn well their mere presence on the ballot takes votes away from the forces striving to protect our nation from totalitarianism.

Every third-party candidate is knowingly complicit in the destruction of America.

11/12

There was a time when it might have made sense to make a protest vote for a third-party candidate who didn't have a chance of getting elected, or to withhold your vote as an act of rebellion against the establishment.

That time is long gone.

#VoteBlueNoMatterWho

12/12