The ballot in the USA does not include "none of the above"

Submitted by Dr. Aaron Lerner (Israel), Jul 22, 2016 at 07:13

Dear Daniel Pipes,

You are participating in a democracy that has a certain structure to it.

I can very well appreciate that you are not enthusiastic about either Trump or Clinton but that is not the question with regard to who you vote for for president. The question is which is a better choice.

Here in Israel we have the luxury of being able to choose a party that we can more closely identify with since under proportional representation the party we vote for doesn't have to "win" - it just needs to earn the support of a relatively small percentage of the voters.

It would note that even in this arrangement there are citizens who stay home on election day because they can't find a party that matches their views to their satisfaction.

Back to the USA:

If you want to argue that there isn't any difference whatsoever between Clinton and Trump AND that the impact of the candidates for senator, congressman etc. that you support would be the same regardless of who sits in the White House then please state it explicitly.

On the other hand, if your assessment is that this is not the case, then supporting the "none of the above" candidate not only constitutes turning your back on the American democratic system - it does a disservice to the candidates who you may support for other positions whose ability to perform will be significantly impacted by who sits in the White House

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