1/ This is not just an appeal along the lines of, "You can, if you choose, vote for the good guys." It's that too, but it's not just that. That could be an argument for quietism, and a vote for @AmSolidarity is not quietist. It's not the political BenOp. https://blogs.mereorthodoxy.com/suzania/american-solidarity-party-dont-throw-away-shot/

2/ This is an invitation to make your vote part of a larger political project. That project is shaping the future of the Republican Party. This is what third parties do: it's what the they shape the policy landscape and flavor of the majority party whose conscience they are.

3/ The DSA was– perhaps still is– the conscience of the Democrats, though it was a conscience they ignored in their nomination of the present ticket.

4/ But it is still their nagging conscience, and it has still changed what it is mainstream to think and say in the Democratic party: support for some version of universal healthcare has skyrocketed among Democrats and even taken root among republicans since 2016.

5/ After this election, what will the Republican party look like? Will it be a continuation of Trumpism? A reversion to George W. Bush-era globalist Neocon warfare? Or could it be something else? I'm aiming at something else.

6/ That's what I'm intending my vote for: to be a small part of the larger work of reshaping the American political landscape on both left and right towards one that is supportive of humans at all stages of their life.

7/ Voting is only a small part of that work. And just laws enforced justly, are a crucial but still not exhaustive part. Government policies can, and should, support this political work.

8/ But much of the political work itself is the work that we do in our families and friend groups and communities: the work of living together in peace, pursuing the good, forming families and being decent neighbors; preserving and honoring our past and welcoming newcomers.

9/ This is just the good normal human work that we can and must do every day, not just election day, and that we do with those who voted like us and with those who didn't vote like us.

10/ O'Donovan writes: “The essential political duties we owe to our neighbours are those of living together with them peacefully under the law, and of giving proper support to the institutions of government that uphold the law. It is very unglamorous, and very necessary.

11/ "To this essential basis a democratic polity has added the specific responsibility of voting in elections. To perform that democratic task well is quite difficult. It means to be aware of the subtle influences of prejudice upon ourselves as well as upon others.

12/ "It means to be open to persuasion, ready to change one’s mind. It means achieving a clear sense of the difference between what we can and must decide and what we cannot and should not try to decide."

13/ Part of the task and responsibility of living in a democracy is living in peace with those who voted a different way from you, and living under a leader who you didn't vote for. If you're not up for taking on *those* tasks you aren't up for being a part of *this* polity.

14/ It's a very hard thing to do. But this is the community we have been given; you don't get to elect your fellow-citizens. And you don't usually get to choose your form of government either. Voting is not the One True Way to choose leaders, but it's *our* way.

15/ So just calm down and go vote, and if the election doesn't go the way you want, calm down again and do good work. None of your work will be lost. None of it.