I keep hearing comments like this:
“There’s no difference between Trump and Clinton. Both major political parties are corrupt. The only way to force change is to vote for a third party. The only way to express my disgust with the current political system is to vote for a third party. The lesser of two evils is still evil. To think there’s a choice between Trump and Clinton is an illusion; they’re both the same.”
You know what this is? Twaddle. It’s nonsense; senseless; silly bullshit. And I’m hearing this twaddle multiple times a day. I’m mostly hearing it from former Bernie supporters who now believe Bernie is a traitor for doing what he always said he’d do — support the Democratic nominee.
I’d intended to write a thoughtful, well-researched analysis detailing exactly why those sorts of comments are twaddle. Hell, I was even prepared to discuss the etymology of twaddle. But bugger all that. I just want to rant, because there’s some bullshit that just doesn’t deserve a serious discussion.
“Trump ou Clinton, je choisis ni l’un!”
No difference between Trump and Clinton? Are you fucking kidding me? That’s not just stupid, it’s stupid at a cellular level. It’s metabolically stupid. Seriously, if you believe this your cytoplasm must have been replaced with stupidplasm. Jeebus fucking Tinkertoy, just consider that one of them actually wants to construct a physical wall across the border with Mexico. That’s medieval thinking — and not in a good way. If you tell me there’s no difference between Clinton and Trump, then I have to assume you’re either lying or you’re a fucking nitwit (which is like 50% as stupid as a total fuckwit). There are flatworms that can distinguish between Trump and Clinton.
And no, voting for a third fucking party is NOT the only way to change the political system. It’s not even a viable way of changing the political system. The fuckwits who make this claim are almost always electoral locusts — they show up every four years to piss away their vote, then bury themselves in the earth until the next presidential election, during which they complain loudly and insistently about how their vote doesn’t count.
You want your vote to count? Vote in local elections. Vote in County and State elections. Elect your third-party candidates to the School Board, or the Board of Supervisors, or any sort of local elected office where shit actually gets done. Get your third-party candidates into your State legislature. It’s not as sexy as a presidential race, sure. But if you really want change, you do that — and you do it in towns and counties and Statehouses across the U.S. That’s how you begin to build a political base. Then you nurture the shit out of those candidates you get elected. Support them with a small donation of time and/or money. Nurture it, and your third-party will grow.
Even those shit-for-brains Tea Party asshats were smart enough to do that — which is why there are states that keep passing stupid laws against the teaching of evolution. If you allow your County and State to elect people who believe idiotic shit like the Bill of Rights is based on the fucking Bible because you think only presidential elections are worth your time and effort, then fuck you and the “no difference between Trump and Clinton’ horse you rode in on. You’ve got the government you deserve.
You support a woman’s reproductive freedom? You want to implement effective gun safety legislation? You want to see more bike paths and more art funding and renewable energy sources and an end to fracking? You’re not going to get any of that shit by voting for GaryJohnson or Jill Stein. Because they’re NOT GOING TO GET ELECTED. You get that shit by voting for progressives at the State and County level. That’s where the laws that shape the lives of regular folks get written.
You want to see real change? Then grunting isn’t enough. You want real change, you have to do the actual grunt work.
gregfallis.com 
IF you had anything intelligent to say, it was blocked by the ridiculous profanity you used….
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You know, you could have stopped reading at any point if you were offended. I’m comfortable using profanity in my blog and I don’t feel any need to censor myself just in case somebody might be offended.
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Wait, what? She could’ve stopped reading? You don’t have to read a complete post, even if your eyeballs are bleeding? So those three minutes I wasted were entirely—by CHOICE?
Eeeeyup.
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There is a difference between the two , but ultimately the end result is the same. We have more debt, more division in society and less Liberty! Yes, Trump wants to build a physical wall and Hillary said she would support a fence in the past, what a huge fucking difference!!!! Do you really believe Hillary Clinton supports you and not her corporate donors? If so, maybe you need to get your head checked . I commend you on your perpetuation of a flawed system that never accomplishes anything of value. Of course we need to change at a local level, No Shit! Most voters only listen to political news in election years, most vote their party all the way down the ballot without even know who they’re voting for or what they represent!! Sheep!! How much change did we get electing Obama? We were still at war… But we got “Affordable healthcare “? And ….? Oh yeah, our debt went from 10 to 19 trillion. How the fuck is that affordable? Why aren’t people outraged by that? THEY ARE THE SAME IN THE SENSE THAT THEY ARE STEERING OUR COUNRRY INTO THE GROUND, NOT IN THEIR BELIEFS!! Do us a service and write a report on a candidate with integrity that doesn’t pander to the masses. Or, go with your original idea of a thoughtful, well researched analysis on how either one of our “only” choices will accomplish anything worthwhile for our future generations without destroying our economy in the process.
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I commend you on your perpetuation of a flawed system that never accomplishes anything of value.
Never accomplishes anything of value? Are you fucking kidding me? What about marriage equality? You didn’t like that? What about gay folks serving openly in the military? What about a 2000% increase in solar installations? What about preventing insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions? You didn’t like any of that? What about opening up diplomatic relations with Cuba? What about cutting unemployment from 10% to 5%? That has no value?
Yes, the system is flawed, no argument there. But to claim that it never accomplishes anything of value is just…well, stupid.
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People who see little difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump do so because they are too extreme to the left (or right) to be trusted with governmental responsibilities in the first place. If you hate compromise so much in this diverse democracy we all live in, you might as well be fascist. Like some REPUBLICANS already are! Remember what happened in the French and Russian Revolutions, you idiots?! Lots of people DIED needlessly because of misplaced idealism! GET FUKING REAL!!!!
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The one part you got right was that this was a rant. Void of any coherence or deductive reasoning, just childish name calling and rambling. Three minutes I will never get back.
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I’m completely crushed by the responsibility of wasting three minutes of your life. Unless those three minutes also include you taking the time to write to tell me how you’ve wasted three minutes of your life. In that case, I’m slightly less crushed by wasting, say, two minutes of your life.
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Big Fucking Yes to all of this, it reminds me of the idea of “think globally, act locally”, that is spot on there.
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All I know is that if the DNC had truly been interested in winning in Nov. and displaying a real difference between themselves and the RNC they would have allowed a democratic process to determine their candidate; however, since they cheated from the very beginning of the process (eight long years ago) to the very end of that mock process they deserve no, none, notta support from people of conscience.
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I agree with the grunt work thing. I would like more Greens and Libertarians to run for state and local. As for the wall. It’s not part of her platform, but Hillary has suggested that we build a “physical barrier” between the USA and Mexico (video footage of a Hillary speech I saw this morning). In reality the president doesn’t have power in regard to social issues. So Trump would meet heavy obstacles in congress to do any abortion, gun control, or immigration reform. Unfortunately the prez does have power over foreign affairs and war. Hillary has a history of voting pro war in countries with large oil reserves, increasing funding to Israel, giving weapons to known genocidal rebels that become terrorist cells, supporting the deposition of dictators with no plan to install a viable system of government resulting in a power vacuum that allows radicals to rise to power, selling arms to dictators with longer track records of human rights violations than the countries she suggested that we invade, and supported air strikes with a kill zone comprised of 90% civilian casualties (actual statistic). And Trump suggested that we bring back torture, that we kill the families of terrorists, that we bomb them more, and asked why we can’t nuke them. Guantanamo never went away, so we’re likely still torturing people. Non-discriminatory air strikes are definitely enticing citizens to join terrorist cells, and are likely killing terrorist family members. Lastly, the USA won’t nuke the Middle East because we would have corporate backlash and congress would fight him. No they’re not the same. Hillary has not suggested nuclear conflict.
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If you think there’s no difference between Trump and HRC, then think about Trump with the nuclear launch codes and think again.
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As much as I don’t like Hillary, Trump scares the Hell out of me. In the interim, supporting progressives at the lo0cal level is looking more and more like an essential strategy from here out.
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This is great- I laughed a lot! Please check out our blog https://caffeinatedconversationsweb.wordpress.com/
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