Bernie Sanders: ‘This is not the time for a protest vote’ [View all]

[Rocknrule]

Source: Washington Post

Anyone driving into Bernie Sanders's rally here, anyone with a radio tuned to ABC News, could hear the low-key voice of Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson. In 60-second radio spots, the former governor of New Mexico introduces himself as a pragmatist who, like most voters, resented a presidential choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

"Our economic challenges will be conquered not by force, but by cooperation and mutual respect," Johnson says in one of the ads. "For the independent majority of Americans who feel as I do, I say: Why wait one more day?"

At the rally itself, Sanders continued making the pitch he's been honing since he returned to the campaign trail: This isn't a year to vote third party. Mentioning Clinton's name sparingly, Sanders told several hundred voters — many still wearing gear from the Democratic primary — that their votes could stop the election of a Republican "who thinks climate change is a hoax."

Sanders, who was the most prominent independent in American politics even before his run, is gradually embracing a role as a third-party critic, a spoiler of the spoilers. As Democrats contemplate ways to tamp down a protest vote for Johnson, or for the Green Party's Jill Stein, Sanders is already arguing that anyone who voted for him would set the movement back by voting against Clinton. In an interview after the rally — the first in a three-state weekend tour for Democratic candidates — Sanders said that Democrats and the media need to focus on Clinton's actual policies more than they have been, in a campaign dominated by back-and-forths about Trump's gaffes.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/16/bernie-sanders-this-is-not-the-time-for-a-protest-vote/

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This election is turning into Bush vs. Gore 2.0. This time with historical context.