Voting from fear.

[Cleita]

I've been listening carefully to what callers in to radio programs are saying and many of these are Bernie supporters. But many of them are saying even though they don't like Hillary like they do Bernie they will vote for her because it seems she is the inevitable candidate, or she's they only one who can beat Trump, or well other excuses that are probably being seeded from both the Hillary camp and the GOP to make her the candidate even though an honest vote might go to Bernie. So I ran across this little blog and the author had some interesting points to make about voting from fear.

http://bigthink.com/action-in-action/are-you-afraid-to-vote

Taking the Fear Out of Voting

by ERIC SANDERS

by Clay Shentrup

The Problem

My fellow voter: have you ever been afraid to vote for your favorite candidate? If so, you’re not alone. It happens to the best of us.

Take my friend Bob. Back in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, he favored Bill Richardson, followed by Barack Obama. By the time his primary election came around, polls showed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the lead. Not wanting to waste his vote on an “unelectable” candidate, Bob did what most voters would do. He lied. He voted for Obama, the “lesser evil” (from his point of view) compared to Clinton. This was tactical voting, pure and simple — Bob gamed the system in order to get a better result. But really, who can blame him?

My friend Alice once faced a similar situation, but she reacted differently. In Montana’s 2006 senate race, she preferred Libertarian Stan Jones to Republican Conrad Burns. She knew full well that Jones had little chance of winning, but she couldn’t bring herself to vote insincerely. She believes that voting is about stating one’s sincere beliefs. Nevertheless, Alice felt a sense of regret when Jones drew enough conservative votes from the Republican to elect Democrat Jon Tester. (We say that Jones and Burns “split” the conservative vote.) Alice thought to herself, “surely if people like me had simply voted for the Republican instead of the Libertarian, then we at least wouldn’t have gotten the Democrat.” And poor Stan Jones was attacked as a “spoiler” whose participation only harmed the democratic process.

My friend Eve unfortunately experienced the worst of both worlds. She preferred Green Party candidate Ralph Nader to Democrat Al Gore back in the 2000 U.S. presidential race. But she instead voted for Gore hoping to at least get a Democrat over a Republican. You can imagine her frustration when Republican Bush won anyway. Nader still got nearly 100,000 votes in Florida alone. And polls suggested Nader would have gotten closer to a million if not for folks like Eve.

While outrageous, this distortion isn’t news to most voters. Chances are you’ve experienced this phenomenon at some point yourself. But what may surprise you is how simple — actually trivial — the cure is. We just remove one tiny rule.

more at link

There seem to be two authors and I don't know why but the sentiment is pretty clear whoever wrote it. It seems that there are those who are being convinced that Hillary is inevitable so it's a waste of a ballot to vote for Bernie. This is how, it seems we have been voting since Kennedy, always the lesser of two evils because we have to get a "winner" on the ticket to beat the big bad Republican. I am begging you to vote for the candidate you love in the primary instead of the lesser of two evils fear vote. If you read further the author explains how the fear vote altered election results when an honest vote would have yielded the results the voter wanted.

[stage left]

1. In the primaries

stage I can see no reason for not voting from your heart.

[Cleita]

2. And yet people are saying that only Hillary can beat Trump.

For one thing Trump will be railroaded by the GOP, I'm almost certain. Cruz will be told he's not eligible because he was born in Canada and not in an American Embassy, American territory or American military base abroad. The law is pretty clear here. I'm surprised no one is taking him to court about it. That leaves Kasich. Bernie has polled better than Hillary against all those candidates yet he can't win the white house if he's not the nominee. So vote Bernie. Don't do the fear vote.

[malokvale77]

3. I quit voting out of fear decades ago.

I came to the realization that Woe V Wade only made abortion more difficult. It brought scrutiny to a process that was once private.

Why is Bernie the only candidate who wants to bring up the ERA. Why does Hillary Clinton, who cries sexism at every turn, not bring up the ERA?

I don't think Hillary gives two shits about "my" rights as a woman. My income of $11,000 yearly while working and now SS benefits (per ex spouse) doesn't warrant her attention.

Bernie gets it.