Like Hillary Clinton in 2016, Al Gore got the most votes nationwide for president in the 2000 election, and still lost. Thanks to our un-democratic electoral college system, the outcome of the election came down to who won a single state: Florida.

With the bad faith help of the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court, the Florida vote recount was halted and George W. Bush declared the winner of the state – and the presidency – by just 537 votes (out of more than 6 million votes cast in Florida).

In that election, consumer advocate Ralph Nader ran as a Green Party candidate. He got 97,488 votes in Florida. It’s difficult to imagine any Green Party voters would have voted for Bush, the oil industry-favored candidate from Texas.

But if just 538 of Nader’s 97,488 voters – fewer than 0.6% of his total – had instead voted for Gore, the Democrat, Gore would have been president. Nader and his voters had to know from the day he announced his candidacy that he had no conceivable chance of winning the presidency. Instead, by siphoning off otherwise Democratic votes, Nader and his voters handed the election to George W. Bush.

Under Bush, we experienced 9/11 and his horrible responses to it: the “War on Terror” and the war in Iraq. Conservative estimates of the civilian death toll from Bush’s war in Iraq – which had nothing to do with 9/11 – are at over half a million dead. The total scope of innocent deaths worldwide from Bush’s “War on Terror” is unknown.

Jill Stein’s candidacy for president in 2016 may have similarly helped Trump win the presidency, after he (like Bush) lost the popular vote but won in the electoral college. (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/11/13576798/jill-stein-third-party-donald-trump-win)

I have closely followed American politics since the late 1960s, then studied American history at Berkeley. When I was 13, I volunteered with my mother on George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign. I worked on Gary Hart’s 1984 campaign. I am a long-time Bernie Sanders supporter. So I have a lot of experience favoring candidates I support on the issues, but who lose elections. I fully understand people’s desire to vote their conscience and not simply vote for the lesser of two evils.

But our elections for president have very real consequences: in the case of Bush, mortal consequences for countless people around the world.

In the case of a second Trump presidency, we face the very real threat of fascist destruction of our very democracy.

A third party protest vote against Biden in the coming close election – by people who would never under any circumstances vote for Trump – is effectively a vote for Trump. Until the 2000 election result, I was a life-long admirer of Ralph Nader, but no more. I have a hard time forgiving the Nader voters that gave us George W. Bush. Half a million dead Iraqis would probably agree, if they could.

Sometimes voting for who you perceive is the lesser of two evils is in fact the morally responsible thing to do, especially when the likely consequences of the election are so unprecedented and profound, as they are in the coming November election.

Often, people voting for third party candidates who cannot win justify their decision by saying “there’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats.” If you are considering not voting or voting for a third party candidate who cannot possibly win – either of which could help propel Trump back into the White House – ask yourself some questions first:

Will the Palestinians fare better with Netanyahu’s favored candidate, Trump, in power?

Will climate change be better addressed under Trump?

Will women’s reproductive rights be better protected under Trump?

Will racism and misogyny be addressed better addressed under a Trump regime?

Will our democracy and constitutional rights be better protected by Trump?

Will our Supreme Court become less reactionary under Trump (who already saddled us with three extreme right-wing justices with lifetime appointments)?

The answers to these questions are clear. A second Trump victory would be an unmitigated disaster for our country and the world.

Part of me would love to write in Bernie Sanders. I pretty much agree with him on everything. But with the stakes so incredibly high, I will instead cast my vote to best keep Trump as far from the presidency as possible. And I’ll be proud to do my part to protect us from that monster, even if I’m voting for a candidate I disagree with on issues that are important to me.

Bernie Sanders agrees and has strongly endorsed Biden, and not any of the third-party candidates. (https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/08/27/dana-bash-bernie-sanders-cornel-west-sot-sotu-vpx.cnn)

At this perilous crossroads in history, we do not have the luxury of not voting or casting “protest votes” that could bring us the worst imaginable person as our president. We cannot afford to let ideological purity open the door for utter disaster.

Only Biden or Trump will be elected president this year. No third party candidate has any conceivable chance of being elected. Please do not do anything to let Trump have his malevolent way with our country again.