“If we don’t hang together, we shall surely hang separately.” - Ben Franklin

Lauren, as flawed as it is, we live in a two-party representative democracy. If the candidate we want is not elected, we have to live with the one who *is* elected.

We can complain till the cows come home how if the candidate we want isn’t #1 on the ballot, we’re going to take our ball and go home…but doing so is highly counterproductive to one’s own goals.

Nobody likes to vote because “I’m not voting for our guy, but I’m just voting against the other guy.” Nobody likes to do that. But enough leftists refused to vote for Clinton in 2016 that we not only wound up with a Russian puppet, but the three justices he was able to push through means that SCOTUS is about to nullify Roe v. Wade and then attack LGBTQ rights.

In other words, because we did not hang together, we *are* being hanged separately.

So please stop telling people to take their ball and go home. Instead, fight like hell in the *primary*, but if the candidate you want doesn’t make it to the general election, then please hold your nose and stand together with the rest of us while we still have a democracy that can be saved.