I’m proud to be a Libertarian, and I’ve been voting for Libertarian candidates and principles for well over a decade (see here, here, here, and even here). As so many people have seen and commented lately, the two leading presidential candidates are abhorrent choices on so many levels. One is a smart criminal and the other is an ignorant bigot. I’m surprised, frankly, that so many educated people think they are the only two choices, and thus we must cast our votes for “the lesser of two evils”.
To that end, I really like this quote from an article by Steven Weese (emphasis mine):
Your vote is an expression of yourself and your beliefs. Your vote has power as a statement. People voting out of fear of the worst candidate is a self-perpetuating cycle. If no one ever has the courage to vote outside of the two main parties, it will never be broken. However, if enough people vote and it shows in the total election count, it will give cause for us to reconsider and embolden even more to vote outside of the two parties.
I’m voting for Gary Johnson, and encourage anyone who is unhappy with the crook and the bully to do the same.