Five reasons why this Bernie Sanders supporter cannot vote for Jill Stein

5) Voting for Stein will help Trump

I don’t particularly like the two-party system, but it is our political reality. If we had stacked rank voting, this would be different, but we don’t. Thus, people cannot vote their “conscience” without helping the candidate they least prefer. As mentioned above, Stein has to know this and I believe she is being disingenuous by pretending this isn’t the case.

If you care about liberal values, then you simply cannot risk a Trump/Pence presidency. It would be an absolute disaster for people who are not white, male, Christian, heterosexual, or financially stable. Also, if you care about liberal values, you have to consider how the next President may appoint up to three Supreme Court justices! Additionally, it’s not unlikely that Trump’s presidency could negatively affect the United States’ relationship with many countries around the world. He could end up destabilizing our economy, which would hurt everyone. Finally, Trump believes global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese. If we elect someone who does nothing to combat climate change, we will all be in big trouble very soon.

So even if Jill Stein didn’t have as many flaws, voting for her would still risk 4-8 terrible years for the liberal issues I care about. I simply cannot “vote my conscience” and increase the risk of that happening. There is too much at stake. I know this post is rather critical of Stein, but I do like her as an activist and agree with her on many issues. The bottom line is that Stein is not qualified to be president and not a great fit for our political system. Luckily for liberals, the Democrats have a candidate running who knows the political system very well and is extremely qualified for the job.