Subject: Re: He's such an idiot
to me - long game is important.

OK. I can respect that choice. Frankly, I agree with it. We have way too much short term thinking both in politics and business.

Sure, there may be less than ideal circumstances that brought these two candidates to us. They both have some baggage. But these are the choices we have. (Well, you could always vote for a 3rd party candidate, I suppose, if you wanted to.)

Since the long game is important to you, what are the potential long term impacts of the two candidates?

Harris: Fundraising? That's short term. 2020 campaign fizzled? That happens all the time. Plenty of past winners ran a previous campaign that fizzled - even Biden (a couple if I'm not mistaken). Drama? You've called that a push. In sum total, no real long term impact - just politics as usual.

You mentioned Trump's problems: No decency, chaos agent, poor choices for key positions.

But you missed the big one. He is the only candidate who has a non-zero chance of upending our democratic processes during his term. That's the big long-term issue with him.

If you sit this one out, it may not matter who you vote for in 2028. The choice of winner may be made for you before the election campaigns even begin. Don't forget that Putin wins re-election every few years.

If you aren't against Trump, you are for him. If he doesn't lose by insurmountable margins, he may find a way to be more successful in throwing several monkey wrenches into the gears of US democracy. The monkey wrenches are a given, of course. But with close enough margins, those monkey wrenches might work this time.

So get out of your pity party that neither candidate is ideal and vote for one of them. Withholding your vote can't make things better. It can only make them worse.

--Peter