Before we start laying blame on third parties for the possibility of a Trump presidency, we need to examine how we have come to this place. We should examine the decision making calculations of Main Stream Media #MSM and the Democratic Party leadership, who have colluded to bring about two evils as our choices. Long before the convention in Philadelphia, the Democratic Party leadership had already decided to take the risk of losing to Trump. Wikileaks has clearly shown how they sabotaged the Bernie Sanders campaign, because issues like the Trans Pacific Partnership and support for the military industrial complex are more important to them. The polls over many months clearly showed Bernie doing much better against Trump than Hillary. Like a race car driver going as fast as possible to make it around a bend in the road, calculations are made as to the amount of risk of crashing that will be acceptable, in order to go as fast as possible. I was a Bernie Delegate at the convention in Philadelphia. It was patently clear to me that once Bernie made his concessions in order to get certain things into a platform (that they have no legal obligation to follow), the Democratic Party no longer had any reason to talk with Bernie supporters. The suppression of free speech and removing credentials from Delegates who held up signs saying “No More War” was more than enough to convince the #DemExit people that they cannot wait another four or years to fight against war mongering neoliberals. Search social media for #DNCstories to find first hand accounts of what really happened that the Main Stream Media did not cover about Philadelphia. The main difference between censorship in Russia and the US is that Russians are aware their media is being censored, while Americans are mostly asleep. This speaks to what many people are now referring to as an “Awakening,” the next step in our political revolution. Right or wrong, many feel that risk calculations in decision making require placing more importance on an Awakening of the population, than whether Hillary or Trump win the Whitehouse. It is also important to understand the vast difference between the act of voting in November, versus unending passion, energy and commitment to issue advocacy and alternatives that may intersect with electoral politics, but also exist outside of electoral politics. Bernie drew tens of thousands to his rallies, while Hillary was lucky to get hundreds. It has been shown to be an incorrect assumption that, if Bernie endorsed Hillary in the convention, then Bernie supporters would campaign for Hillary. Instead we now see select Republicans already endorsing Hillary. This is further evidence of neoliberals moving the Democratic Party further to the right. Many Bernie supporters may hold their nose and vote for Hillary in November, but much more important is seeing where all the energy of this past year will lead.

The two party system, that we now have, has both grown to become dysfunctional both in terms of getting things through Congress and in perpetuating unending war. The argument for voting for the lesser of two evils in many people’s minds has been about appointments to the Supreme Court.

Many who do not accept that we must vote for the lesser of two evils seem to have two primary concerns:

First, they believe that the clock is ticking faster for climate change problems than the too modest reforms proposed by neoliberals to address climate problems and this ultimately endangers the human race.

Second, unending war has turned out to be integral to neoliberalism and the two party system will never bring about peace. The Obama administration has has prosecuted more journalists and whistle blowers using the Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined.

Brett Holman writes “As Goldstein explains in his book on oligarchical collectivism, (writing about Orwell’s 1984) war provides two things: a way to dispose of surplus production; and objects of hate. The latter is almost self-explanatory: in a permanent war there is always an outgroup to solidify the cohesion of the ingroup (even if you have to switch the names around sometimes). Us vs Them is such a useful tool for repressing diversity of opinion and behaviour that it’s appeared time and time again, even in democracies.”

So, many who will not vote for the lesser of two evils, feel that we cannot wait any longer for our struggle to promote peace and transform climate. Thus, many are now seeking, not to register a protest vote, but to build new ways of organizing and mobilizing that have not existed in electoral politics. The Occupy movement not only changed the conversation to address inequality, it began the discipline of how to run meetings based on consensus democracy, where decision making was bottom up. Another alternative in use for some years now in Europe is Liquid Democracy.

We do not have the time to wait another 4 or 8 years for better choices. How are your #MakingDemocracy today? What are you doing in your life to make a difference? Be the change that you see!