Sorry - if you voted for a third party, you are part of the problem.
The blame for this ugly surprise rests on third-party voters, people who didn't vote (note that I'm not saying people who couldn't vote - voter suppression was worse this election than since the literal sixties), the electoral college, the media's ceaseless pandering to Trump and demonizing of Clinton, and, of course, the monster that is Trump himself.
I very much understand the appeal of third party candidates, believe me. (Side note: the phrase "believe me" has been ruined for me forever, so I'm going to try to avoid using it from now on.) I'm not happy with the Democratic Party, and I'm sure as **** not happy with Secretary Clinton. Alternatives are starting to sound pretty nice.
But I think very few people went into those polls truly believing that Jill Stein or Gary Johnson was going to pull some surprise mega victory. One of two things was going to happen come Tuesday night - either Trump or Clinton was going to be the President-elect.
Voting is not some self-expressive action meant to make you feel fuzzy inside. It's an attempt to realistically and truly push the country in a direction where it can get a little bit closer to how you wish it was. No one is going to read your write-in vote or look at the percentage of third-party votes and decide, 'well, gee, since this person got like six percentage points of support in the General Election, we better start doing things more their way!'
If, for whatever reason, you voted third party - and this goes especially for you if you live in a battleground state - you helped hand this election to that greasy orange fleshlight of a man. I'd say I hope it was worth it, but it clearly wasn't. Have fun living with that choice for the next four years as literal Nazis feel empowered to get away with some truly vile, life-ruining garbage.
Also, and I can't emphasize this enough, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are just flat out terrible candidates. Worse than both Clinton and Trump. Stein has no idea what she's doing and can't hold a realistic political position for ten seconds without wavering, and Johnson appears to constantly be high on a drug that no one else but him knows exists. You don't have to love or even like Hillary Clinton to recognize that she actually knows what is going on around her, has real political opinions, and knows how to lead.
If you think this situation is in any way okay, or that this is even remotely preferable in the slightest to a Clinton presidency, do yourself a favor and don't waste your time responding to this. I don't want to debate anyone on this. I've dealt with enough terrible opinions over the past day and a half and besides, it's beyond a lost cause at this point.
All I can say is, I hope someone does something about this before January 20th comes around, because I doubt that I'll be living here anymore if Trump or Pence actually goes into office. Whether I have a choice or not.
