First off, I’d like to welcome Lothar Quinte to the blog. His inaugural post “Stop!!… Calling Me a Trump Supporter!” (https://divided-states.com/?p=630) was very well done, well thought out, and his position very clear. I hope to see more from him!

The major takeaway I get from his post is that he’s a Trump supporter.

I kid. Really. He makes the distinction between supporting the candidate and “defending” him quite well. Lothar and I are in full agreement about the reprehensible character that is Donald Trump, even though we come to slightly different conclusions. I believe someone can be driven by money and greed and still be an egomaniac. You sorta have to be, I think… But I take his point, and don’t disagree with his take on it.

And this ties in with a conversation that Erin and I had been having off-line. We’d been discussing the election (big surprise) and how divisive the campaigning has been; I’ve noticed there is no longer a lot of talk about “bringing the country together” from either campaign…

I’d been agonizing over where to put my vote. I know, I’ve said I may write in Gary Johnson as President on November 5, since I cannot in good conscience vote for either major party candidate on the ballot. But arguments are being made by supporters (and apologists, and “defenders” like Lothar) that carry some semblance of logic, which is sorely lacking in most political discourse today.

But even taking all of it into account, what it all boils down to is: who stinks the least. Based on your own perspective, some of the odious discharges of one candidate are going to be worse than the odious discharges of the other. Which stench is going to be the most tolerable?

If you lean conservative, the stench of Donald Trump may be slightly less objectionable than the stench spewed by Kamala Harris. Likewise, the more liberal your politics, the less objectionably Harris will stink compared to Trump. But it’s still which of these choices stink the least – it’s “hold your nose and vote.”

Lothar, then, finds the reprehensible nature of Donald Trump’s character less objectionable than the social and economic policies that Kamala Harris represents (but has failed to articulate thus far).

I think my position on the candidates has been made clear. Neither of them should be elected. But one of them is going to be our next President.

But wouldn’t it be nice to not have to vote for the lesser of two evils?

May God have mercy on our souls…

Anyway… I am no longer agonizing over where to put my vote. As our discussion went on, I realized something important: in my specific case, it doesn’t matter who I – me, myself – vote for. I could vote for Trump, or Harris, or Johnson, or my buddy in Florida, or my other buddy in Florida, or even write in my own name, and it won’t matter – not one little bit.

Don’t misunderstand me. This is a critical election, and in most places, each vote does matter, so don’t sit this one out. VOTE!!

But not where I live. I live in a solid-blue state. And when I say solid-blue, I mean SOLID-BLUE… My state will never be a “battleground” state in a Presidential election, not in my lifetime. We haven’t seen a Republican Presidential candidate campaign here in at least a generation…

Which means that our state’s Electors will vote for the Harris/Walz ticket. It’s a foregone conclusion, even now, even before the first vote is counted. So I can vote my conscience and not have to hold my nose doing it. And go to bed that night in the warm glow of righteousness, even knowing that it made absolutely no difference at all.