This blog post started writing itself on my drive home from work. I had just had a conversation with my coworker and friend, Fran, about the election. I was getting ready to leave, and she asked for my help with something. I walked to her desk and she was asking me to help her be able to listen to the Presidential Debate over her headset on her computer. I said, "Why do you want to listen to that? You can't even vote!!!!" (Fran is Canadian). She said she found it interesting to listen to them. So we started discussing the election.
This is the first time I've struggled with who to vote for in the Presidential race. I am a conservative, and have voted for every Republican candidate since I turned 18 with the exception of Bill Clinton in 1992. I hate to admit that I voted for him, but it's true. Chalk it up to being 18, naïve, and thinking our country needed a change. Insert *eyeroll*. It's always been easy, it's always been clear who to vote for. I liked more than others, sure. I put a "W" 2004 sticker on my car. But this year...this year, it's a struggle.
It's clear who I'm not going to vote for. There's no way I will vote for Hillary. I don't agree with her, I don't respect her, and I cannot stand the thought of seeing her and Bill running the show for another 4 or 8 years. I just don't know if I can vote FOR Donald Trump. I don't care that Donald Trump isn't a politician, doesn't have experience in public office, or even that he's a celebrity. I agree with him on the issues 90% (I took a quiz on an app, and that was my score), more than any other candidate. I watched his speech online when he came up to Lynden, and didn't find anything to really disagree with. But are the issues enough? I want someone running the country who believes as I do, but I have a hard time stomaching the thought of this particular man running the country. He is egotistical, he is rude, he has said unbelievably mean things about people. I'm not feeling this way just because of the video of the "locker room" talk from 10 years ago that recently came out. I already knew he was egotistical and rude. The video didn't surprise me. Really, it doesn't even matter.
I am usually in the camp of voting for a main party candidate, even if it's a lesser of two evils, because a "vote for Trump will be a vote against Hillary". It always bothered me when people would say they were going to vote their conscience, when that meant voting for some third party candidate who has no chance in hell of winning. If you "split the vote" then you lose, and so the worst of the two evils wins. I am beginning to change my mind. Maybe it wasn't against my conscience to vote for anyone I have in the past. But now, it feels like it will be wrong to vote for Trump. And if it is wrong for me to do it, if it goes against my conscience, then I can't do it.
I'm not going to not vote at all, of course. I don't like hearing that people just won't vote because they think it won't count. We hear that in Washington State because we typically go blue in the Presidential races, so it feels like your conservative/Republican vote didn't count. But it does. (remember Gore-Bush 2000 and Gregoire-Rossi 2004?) And it's not just the count that matters. It's exercising one of the rights we have in this country. It's a privilege and, I believe, a duty to vote. So many around the world don't have the right to choose their leaders or voice their beliefs, so I take it very seriously. Very. If I hear you didn't vote, and could have, I will get mad.
I'm not sure if I'll write in a candidate or pick a third-party one. I may even change my mind back and vote for Trump. I still have a few weeks to decide. If you vote for Trump, that's great, I'm not going to try to talk you out of it. As long as you have thought it through and you are making an educated decision, then I'm good with that. Even if you choose to vote for Hillary, that's your choice and your right.
At least it's almost over.
