Wild Pitch

Well, it's that time of the election cycle again, when the partisans show up to tell people who are dissatisfied with the big two political parties to give their vote to the "right" party, because otherwise, the vote is simply being thrown away.

Okay, sure. But... most votes don't count for beans already. Trump voter here in Washington State? Biden voter in Texas? Wasting their time; they may as well leave the top of the ticket blank on Election Day. Many states are already pretty much decided. So why not let people vote in a way that speaks to them? If this election is that important, I say get yourself over to Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin and start knocking on doors. Depending on who one asks, North Carolina might also be on that list, but that still leaves 43 states that aren't at all competitive. Dragging people for deciding "none of the above" isn't likely to help. When someone says: "A pox on both your houses," criticism of the other house seems pointless.

The number of people who simply don't vote vastly outnumbers, in pretty much every single election cycle, the number of people who vote third party. But actually going and speaking to people is work. And like most work, it doesn't play as well on social media as snarkily shouting at people, then going home.