A Challenge To Lesser-Evilists

Dear Lesser Evilists:

I'm afraid the time has come to call your bluff. You say that you are troubled by much of Hillary Clinton's political legacy, but you feel that you must vote for her in order to stop Donald Trump from being elected.

Fair enough.

If you would rate Jill Stein "less evil" than either Trump or Clinton, why don't you support her? If your answer is: because she doesn't have a chance to win, that too is fair enough (although something of a self-fulfilling prophecy).

But now I have another question: What could you do, between now and election day (November 8th), to increase her chances of winning?

You could contribute time or money to her political campaign. You could talk to your friends about her and encourage them to support her. You could sign petitions demanding that she be allowed to debate Trump and Clinton. I would suggest, in fact, that as a lesser-evilist with the courage of your convictions, you really ought to be doing those things.

And don't worry that such activity might damage Clinton's chances of ultimately prevailing over Trump. She has a huge campaign war chest, the support of Wall Street, organized labor, and the Democratic Party machine. Moreover, she has name recognition and supporters who don't think she is the lesser-evil at all. They actually believe that she is just the candidate this country needs as its next President. Many of those supporters are Democrats and, I'll wager, quite a few are Republicans. I'm sure some are Independents as well. Don't worry about Hillary. She'll be just fine.

On November 7th, you can take a look at what the polling data reveal about Trump's, Clinton's, and Stein's chances in the General Election and decide then how you will actually vote on November 8th.

Rest assured that your support for Stein's candidacy between now and then does not obligate you to vote for Stein on Election Day. But if it turns out that as a result of your efforts Stein becomes the front-runner, you will have the great pleasure, as a lesser-evilist, of voting for and very likely electing the least of three evils.

In the alternative, you could do the American electorate a big favor by publishing the objective standard that you are no doubt using to determine the relative "evilness" of each Presidential candidate. That way, we can all be on the same page.

By the way, I'm not defending Trump; I'm defending rationality over partisan fear-mongering, bullying, and Groupthink.