What will you do on election day if the only candidates are from the current pool?
I assume you mean that and “assuming none of them change your mind between now and Election Day…”
The answer to that question is the same as in 2012 when I did not like Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. I voted for a write-in candidate of my choosing.
You’re going to ask me then, “why bother?” right? I’ll pre-empt the questions here:
So why bother voting at all? Why not just stay home?
Because the race for President was not the only race that day, and I did cast votes for the major candidates in other races.
So, isn’t your vote just a wasted vote?
Perhaps, but it’s my vote to waste. I will not vote for a candidate whom I cannot support. Unless I can give myself a really compelling reason, I will not “hold my nose” and vote for a candidate I do not like.
But what about your obligation to go out and make the voice of the Jewish community be heard?
I did go out and vote. And, as for the Jewish community, the local elections are probably far more important to our concerns than the race for President.
But you wasted your vote!
No, I didn’t.
First of all, it’s my vote to waste if I want to do so.
Second, voting for my preferred candidate is not a waste, even if s/he has no realistic chance of winning.
Third (and as an extension of the second), let’s say I “held my nose” and voted for Romney? So what? We all knew going in that Obama was going to win New York and that it wasn’t even going to be close. So why is my vote for my preferred candidate worse than a vote for Romney when they both had no realistic chance of winning the Electors from the State of New York?
The Wolf