Scott Lane

March 30th, 2016

2016 Presidential Election Endorsement
My first choice for President of the United States in 2016 is Senator Bernie
Sanders of Vermont, as he is the only major-party candidate who embraces a form
of Democratic Socialism (or Social Democracy). However, in my view, it is very
unlikely that he will win the nomination for the Democratic Party, and he is also not
likely to run as a third-party candidate if he loses the nomination. With this in mind,
I have only four other plausible options in November:

1. Decline to vote at all

2. Vote for the Republican nominee
3. Vote for Secretary Hillary Clinton
4. Vote for a third-party candidate

The first two options are easily ruled out. I believe it is my duty as a
politically-active citizen to vote in this election, so I will not decline to vote. I also
cannot, in good conscience, vote for the Republican nominee, whether it be Donald
Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, Governor John Kasich, or someone else (if a contested
convention occurs, as many are suggesting is possible on the Republican side,
anything could happen). I am too far to the political Left to vote for a Conservative,
especially for the highest elected office in the nation.
This leaves two options, both of which are flawed. If Senator Sanders loses
the Democratic nomination, Secretary Clinton is assumed to win it (she is the only
other Democrat actively running), and she is, in my opinion, a very flawed

candidate. She has been plagued by scandals, most significantly concerning her
response to the Benghazi incident and her use of a private email server to conduct
State Department business. Furthermore, she seems to have a bad habit of flipflopping or evolving on some issues that are very important to the Liberal
constituency that I am a part of.
However, voting for a third-party candidate is also a flawed option, since this
course of action does not have much practical utility. If I were to vote for a thirdparty candidate, it would be Mimi Soltysik, the nominee for the Socialist Party of the
United States of America (also called Socialist Party USA or SPUSA). But I am a
realist: I know Soltysik has no chance of actually winning the Presidency. So while
my vote would be cast for the candidate I most agree with, it would also be wasted.
With this in mind, I have come up with a compromise wherein assuming
Senator Sanders loses the Democratic nomination I will vote for Hillary Clinton if
the following conditions are met:

1. She must not be indicted on any criminal charges.

2. She must take significant action to show that she will not ignore the concerns of
the Sanders constituency. The most obvious way to do this is to select Senator
Sanders as her running mate.

If these conditions are not meant, I will instead vote for Soltysik, as I cannot
vote for a candidate who is being charged with a crime, nor can I vote for one who
chooses to ignore the portion of the Liberal base that I belong to.