Clinton, Democrats Got Nadered Again

Just like in 2000, it looks like third party candidates have once again managed to throw the election to the Republicans. And, just like in 2000, the Democrat will have won the popular vote and still lost the election. Michigan and Wisconsin would have been won by Clinton if she had captured the Jill Stein vote. And Clinton would have just needed another 20,000 of Gary Johnson’s over 140,000 votes to win Pennsylvania if she had captured Stein’s vote there. Those 46 electoral votes would have allowed her to become President. This does not detract from the fact that Democrats should have won all three of these states even without the influence of Stein and Johnson and they didn’t. It does not detract from the fact that Democrats are going to have to find a way to reach rural voters in order to create a lasting mandate. But, just like in 2000, in this election those votes cast as in protest or in idealism will have devastating consequences not only for our country but perhaps for the entire world. The current pinned tweet from the Green Party right now says, “ElectionDay is almost over but the Political Revolution will continue. Together, we can create a GreenFuture!” That green future just got far more distant because we will have four years of Donald Trump and continued climate change denial. Again, this election result is a failure of the Democratic party and the collapse of the center of the Republican Party. But elections have consequences and, like most things in life, it is usually a choice of the lesser of two evils, not a choice between better and best. Under Trump, the Paris Climate Agreement is probably dead. And I sincerely believe if Jill Stein had run on the platform of killing that agreement, virtually every voter who cast their ballot for her yesterday would not have done so. But that is the effective result of their vote.