Relitigating the 2016 Election: Another Open Letter To Swing State Progressives

Note: This story originally appeared on my blog on November 7, 2016.

By this time tomorrow, the 2016 Presidential Election will be officially over. The American people will have chosen the 45th President of the United States of America. Unfortunately, there is a thirty percent chance that that person will be Donald Trump.

If you’re a progressive, you’re probably feeling equally apprehensive about a Clinton victory. In fact, you’re probably so apprehensive that you’ve decided to cast a vote for a third party candidate. Or maybe you feel so disgusted that you’ve decided to stay home from the polls altogether.

Please don’t do that. And that goes double for the millions of progressives who currently reside in swing states. If you cast a ballot for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson in a swing state, you are voting for Trump. If you are voting for Evan McMullin outside of Utah, you are voting for Trump. If you write-in Bernie Sanders’ name, you are voting for Trump. If you throw up your hands and just skip the polls altogether, you are voting for Trump.

And no progressive should be okay with doing that.

You see, progressives denounced the Iraq War and vociferously protested the “enhanced interrogation techniques” and…