Half A Vote

     There's a former friend who's annoyed at me.  You see, we didn't vote for the same person for President, and he thinks I stopped being his friend because he didn't vote for Kamela Harris.

     "You couldn't possibly have thought I'd vote for a Democrat!"

     You know what?  I didn't.  But I didn't think he'd vote for a thuggish authoritarian who had, at best, egged on an unsuccessful coup, either.  That's why we're not friends any more.  I don't hate him; he's not a bad guy himself, despite making such a bad choice; but I'm not friends with authoritarians, period.

     Too many people treat voting as a binary choice, and back themselves into a corner, trying to justify their pick.

     Even when there are only two choices on the ballet, you always have three choices.  Can't stand one of 'em and the other is someone who shouldn't have the job?  Then skip the contest!  Yeah, people keep saying, "Hold your nose and vote," and you really should take a look at all the candidates; could be the positives of one will outweigh their negatives, or you can be pretty sure one of the other branches of government will keep them in line.*  But if not, why not just pass?  A vote is a reward, and if neither one has earned it, withhold it.  Or go shopping for a third party candidate, because a vote is also a signal, and if the lunatic from the steam-clean-the-sewers party gets a big pile of votes, that part of the electorate is telling candidates they think it's time to get down there and flush out the pipes.

     Voting for the same party you always have and then retconning your choice no matter how big a stinker the person is?  That's a bad approach.  It's lazy and thoughtless.

     I get that in the 2024 election, a lot of voters decided they were okay with cult-of-personality neo-fascism, or whatever the historians are going to call it, and that's one problem; but another problem, maybe a worse one, is that big block of voters just went into the booth and pulled the lever for R (or D) because they always do, having already made up reasons why that was okay, or coming up with them afterwards, and for the Rs of that group, sunk-costs fallacy means many of them still are.  Telling them "you voted for this" only reinforces it, no matter how bad prices get or how many people Federal almost-police kill in the streets and detention camps.

     Vote smarter.
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* I admit it, I'm a big fan of divided government.  I think having an Executive from one party and a majority of the other in the legislature keeps them focused on two things: the tasks that actually need to get done, and harmless sparring with one another.  With both those branches under one party's thumb, they start servicing their base with frippery and bullshit instead of ghetting down to useful work, and if they've got the Judicial branch, too, look the hell out.