This article originally appeared at WALReader.com, the website of our magazine.
Missouri’s presidential primary is today, and I can proudly say that I’ll be voting for Tulsi Gabbard.
I had a few options today:
- Get a Republican ballot and vote for Bill Weld – I am still a fan of Weld’s, and genuinely think that he’d be an extremely competent and effective president. And I’d get to vote against Trump .
- Vote for Yang – Over the past few months, Yang became my favorite of the Democrats running for congress. Unfortunately, he suspended his campaign after new Hampshire, so this would be a purely for my own gratification.
- Vote for Tulsi – I’ve been a Tulsi fan for four years now (though I admit, she’s done/said some things during the course of her campaign that give me pause), and she’s still actively running.
- Vote for Biden – I can’t stand Biden, but I think he has a decent chance of beating Trump (who can’t stand even more).
- Vote for Bernie – Bernie is marginally better than Biden, but that’s not saying much. I think he’d be an incompetent and ineffective president, and I think his natural tendencies are authoritarian. I also think he would get crushed by Trump in November.
- Stay home – anyone I really support has 0% chance of winning or has already dropped-out, so voting is basically a waste of time for me.
Out of these options, I’m only able to proudly choose voting for Tulsi. Neither Bernie nor Biden align with my morality. And even though I favor Yang slightly over Tulsi, he’s dropped-our and she hasn’t.
Besides all of that, Tulsi is a phenomenal peace advocate, far better than any of her competition. Tulsi has centered her campaign on being pro-peace, which in my opinion is the main thing any morality-concerned campaign should be centered around. She has spoken clearly and boldly against the imperialists in both main parties for years, and has repeatedly drug her warmongering Democratic rivals (Biden, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, etc.) through the filthy mud they deserve. She is the only candidate who I feel confident would not start a new war or expand a current international quagmire.
I refuse to support a candidate who does not take peace seriously, and Tulsi is the only remaining candidate giving an anti-war message the centrality it deserves. I am proudly voting for peace today; I am proudly voting for Tulsi Gabbard. I urge anyone horrified by warfare and imperialism to do so as well.
(And for the Bernie Bros who will inevitably blame me and people like me for Bernie’s inevitable defeat in Missouri, I have three words: I don’t care.)
