2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: What exactly will not voting for the nominee accomplish? [View all]thesquanderer
(11,986 posts)and basically the same as I posted to someone else who asked the same question...
If you're in a swing state, I agree, vote for the Dem no matter who it is, for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that we can't afford to have a Republican appoint the next Supreme Court justice.
But you know, if you live in New York or some other state that is definitely giving its elecoral votes to the Dem candidate no matter what, then there's no risk that not voting Dem is actually going to help put a Repub in the WH.
In that case, when there are no "real" stakes, someone might easily prefer to use his or her vote to send a message, by voting for the Green candidate or whatever. Or even just stay home, because they don't want to be part of a perception of an even bigger popular vote win for the victor. Maybe you'd prefer that the candidate who doesn't sufficiently support your views win, but not necessarily by margins that indicate overwhelming support. Maybe it's worth doing what you can to help send a message about the direction you really want the country to go in. At least as long as you're not really helping putting a Republican in the WH.