sign
This sign would support the Cocktail Party

Yes, the title of this blog post is pretty correct. I am and have been, for the most part, undecided on who to vote for President of the United States. Before that statement gets you angry, I will be voting and I will most likely be voting for the Democratic Candidate Hillary Clinton. But that decision hasn’t been easy to take and it’s one that I’m still not comfortable with, but given the GOP being all fucked up and putting up a candidate that has no business being President, it’s the option that I feel we are left with to avoid having the Cheeto-in-Charge.

Conflicted

cartoon
So true, so clever

Where things have gone wrong after a pretty solid 8 years with Barack Obama amazes me. Yes, there are those who have hated Obama for just being who he is. And there are those who hate him for thinking he’s destroyed this country. How anyone can believe that without actually looking at where we are 8 years later baffles my mind. But I do admit that this is the most conflicted and frustrated I’ve been in a general election since, well, ever. My first general election I voted in was in 1984 via absentee ballot [I was on a Mormon mission in Spokane, WA at the time] and I was for Mondale. Reagan had policies I didn’t agree with on many levels. I hated his deregulation of finance and his trickle down economics. Mondale seemed to offer better solutions. But Mondale got clobbered and lost big time. Too many Reagan lovers out there.

Back in 2000, Gore won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College, thanks to a Supreme Court decision. The next 8 years were pretty dismal, in my opinion. So now we are given choices in candidates that really lack in many areas. Let me go through the main ones and give you my reasons of conflict.

Never Trump

trump bathroom
Misguided GOP wishes

Believe it or not, the ribald and sexual assault like talk that has come out of Donald Trump isn’t the biggest thing that bothers me about him. I know there are many out there like him that say and do the things he’s boasted about, which is not to excuse his behavior or his words and actions. And I’m very much against what Trump has said and done in his way of getting what he wants. My biggest issue is how he’s brought out all of the haters, racists, bigots and white supremacists to the public forefront. When people say “oh racism, that ended in the 1960’s” it make me so angry to hear that. To excuse the fact that this is still going on today and that we have all age groups represented in their mindsets about Muslims, gays, blacks and women all being treated as “less than” in the collective humanity. We need to move forward, not backwards. This is 2016, not 1946 or 1796.

I’m a Never Trump here and do not plan to vote for him in two weeks.

Less Johnson

I was, for the most part, supporting Gary Johnson. Then came the Allepo misstep. Then not knowing who the leader of North Korea was. Then I found a list of things he supports. Which very little I support. He’s against single payer healthcare, for the TPP, against gun control, for raising the age to collect Social Security, against a raise of the minimum wage and so much more that doesn’t match what I support. About the only thing I really agree with on is to decriminalize drugs, like marijuana. And up until late August, I disagreed with his vaccination stance. He’s since changed it to that he support mandatory vaccinations.

I really wasn’t sure how I could have missed the general view and support of being a Libertarian, which is hardly any government in our lives. Which makes it very ironic about him wanting to be President. One of the mantras of the Libertarian Party is less leadership and more freewill and less control. I’m for less government, but his party and positions go way too far.

I’m not going to vote for Gary Johnson for President.

Jill Stein

Don’t really need to go into much here as I never really considered her. I appreciate her views and her support of protestors on the North Dakota Pipeline and other important causes, but I can’t, in all good faith, support her on other levels.

Which means, Jill Stein will not be getting my vote for President.

Evan McMullin

I disagree with many of his positions, but think he’s a pretty ethical person and has some good stances for what he believes in. I applaud that. And he’s got the best chance to take the 6 Electoral College votes here in Utah. That’s a powerful position to be in and a nice start to a change for a viable 3rd party candidate. I admit that I considered voting for him, just for that reason alone. And given that current polling shows those 6 Electoral College votes have no chance of going to Hillary, that’s 6 less votes that would go to Trump, which in a way, helps Hillary.

So that’s a no for placing my vote for Evan McMullin.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton
Original image found at Akoma

I share a lot of what Hillary supports in her campaign and that’s a positive. The negative side to that is that a lot of what she supports hasn’t been what she’s supported all along. I understand when candidates evolve into their positions over the years and I totally support that. But when not too long ago, the memory of big money, Wall Street, TPP, same sex marriage and other positions I’ve been on the other side of the coin with for much longer, Hillary has been forced to shift to the opposite side of those positions, as to not be that outsider that people disagree with and don’t want to vote for. For many of those, we have Bernie Sanders to thank. And who I wish was on this ticket, at least as Vice President.

I should note that of the things that most people hate about Hillary, I share almost none of those. Millions of wasted dollars into what happened in Benghazi and nothing was found, as far as Hillary was responsible for. Email servers, while a bad decision, is another witch hunt that spends more time hating than finding out the truth.

If Hillary would have picked Bernie, we’d have a lot less to worry about who would win. Bernie supporters like myself would have had a nice comfortable knowledge that Bernie would help guide Hillary into keeping in line. While Tim Kaine seems good, he’s not enough to help ensure things will not change mid-way through the 4 year term.

But given who is running for GOP, I will take that nose hold into the voting booth [or in my case here, my mail in ballot that sits on my desk and needs to be sent off in 3 days] and hope that she really will have some solid positions that she’s going to support without pissing off us Bernie supporters and Obama lovers.

Vote

If you are indecisive like I am, I still encourage you to vote. Find a candidate that matches your views and positions. If that’s Trump, I’m sorry. If that’s anyone else, then I support you in your choice, even if it’s not my choice. Which in reality is none of them, but to keep things as best as they can be for the next 4 years, I’m going with Her.