As the 2016 primary season comes to a close, voters are left with few options. While many voters are ecstatic about the nomination of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, many are disappointed with the options in front of them.
I am a young Bernie Sanders supporter who was quickly caught by the tide of the “Bernie or Bust” movement. Why should I support a candidate who vehemently opposed LGBTQIA rights until it was politically dangerous to do so? Why should I support a candidate who infamously referred to black youth as “super predators”? Why should I support someone who time after time again turned her back on vulnerable communities?
{mosads}These questions were important to me and I felt politically homeless. I initially looked to Jill Stein, Bernie Sanders’ Green Party analog, for salvation. Shortly after learning that Jill Stein would not make the ballot in all 50 states, I quickly jumped ship and threw my support behind Gary Johnson. I viewed Johnson as a candidate who could force the conversation on many important progressive issues that are largely being ignored like recreational drug reform and copyright reform.
Things changed for me when Gary Johnson flip-flopped on the Trans Pacific Partnership. Johnson now supports the passage of TPP which has grave repercussions for the environment and free speech. If progressives are serious about stopping TPP, they need to reject third party candidates in 2016. TPP gives foreign corporations the right to sue the United States for imposing regulations that result in a loss of profit. Essentially, TPP could bind the United States into a position where we would be unable to have any meaningful form of environmental regulation.
While Donald Trump has been against TPP since day one, his rationale employs little concern for the environment. In a quintessential tweet Trump pronounced that “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive”. Trump’s concern regarding TPP is trade, not climate.
Through the process of elimination, progressives are left with Hillary Clinton. While Clinton’s “clean coal” VP pick has alarmed liberals, Clinton rejects TPP and has a party that will hold her accountable on environmental policy.
Make no mistake, the Democratic Party is marred with issues. I have taken great personal issue with the DNC’s xenophobic plotting against my faith. However, there is far too much to lose if progressives use this election as the platform for rejecting the Democratic Party for the DNC’s age-old issues. Progressives have every day until 2020 to make real progressive progress either from within the Democratic Party or from outside it. This progressive change does not begin with the election of Donald Trump or Gary Johnson.
By voting for Hillary Clinton, progressives do not need to support Clinton’s worst policies, blunders or scandals. A vote for Clinton is simply a vote against the would-be environmental catastrophe of a Trump or Johnson presidency. The planet cannot wait another election. Progressives must unite behind Hillary Clinton in order to stop global climate change.
Matt D’Amico is a sophomore political science student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.