This is a call for a larger conversation about how our country operates. Good. The first step is admitting there is a problem.

Of the three distinctions you make, I’d most like to address strategic voting versus conscience voting. Everyone in the country is dealing with this right now, and you seem to come down on the side of conscience voting. That’s a very principled stance, but I don’t think we can blame strategic voters for a simple reason:

When voting your principles and voting to secure the best future for your country are two different things, your voting mechanisms are broken.

Democracy means the people choose, but currently they are being denied choice. Our electoral system disenfranchises voters first with poor civic education, second with barriers to participation, third by limiting them to two political flavors, fourth by running those choices through gauntlets until one dislikeable choice (selected by plurality) remains. A majority of Americans will not have voted for our next president.

There are solutions. Every United States citizen needs to be able to vote easily (automatic registration, Election Day is a holiday, vote by mail is universal). We need to use instant-runoff voting to ensure that we are given a real choice and not forced to choose the lesser of two evils. We need to end gerrymandering so that people get the representation they deserve.

In short, everyone gets a choice, and it’s a real choice.

Only then will voting your conscience and voting for the future be one and the same.