It cracks me up whenever I see pawns of the Democratic Party like Robert Reich try to argue that supporting Hillary Clinton is the “realistic and practical” way to forward the progressive agenda. It always makes me wonder what reality they’re referring to when they call such creative fabrications “realistic.” Does Mr. Reich hail from Narnia, perhaps? Some magical gumdrop fantasy land where everyone walks backward and M. Night Shyamalan’s movies keep getting better and better?

Robert Reich's home address.

Check it out guys, their “practical and realistic” argument goes like this (I swear I’m not making this up): While it’s true that Hillary Clinton has historically been far to the right of anything anyone could rightly label progressive, and leaked emails have shown beyond a doubt that she is inextricably mired in and dependent upon an unfathomably vast network of corporatist corruption from top to bottom, what they’re going to do is make her President of the United States, see, and then they’ll try to get the Democrats control of the House and the Senate so nobody will stop her from doing the things she wants to do.

That’s it. That’s their whole entire plan.

I know, right? I guess in whatever imaginary fairy unicorn land these people come from, the best way to make politicians less corrupt is to give them more power.

Try asking them something like, “Well, okay, that’s really really strange, but say we try that and Hillary doesn’t do the things we want her to do? What then?”

“Well, we’ll hold her feet to the fire,” they’ll reply.

With what?? The Force? Your magic elf wizard powers? You just gave away all your leverage, you Harry Potter wannabe!

Hillary supporters on their way to the polls. [Image by Shutterstock]

Are we in Middle Earth? Is this the Shire? In what high-fantasy gelfling world is it “realistic and practical” to give away 100 percent of your negotiating power before negotiations even begin? I don’t know what enchanted rune portal these people just walked out of, but here in the land of the muggles you don’t force someone to do what you want by giving them all the power they desire and then asking them to play nice. You force them by forcing them.

While Hillary supporters have managed a tremendous feat of imagination that would bring a tear to Mr. Rogers’ eye by pretending they’re participating in some noble revolution by voting for the most fanatically pro-establishment candidate in recent memory, it’s clear that forcing Hillary to the left can’t work, and even if it could her supporters have no real intention of doing so. While Robert Reich writes blog posts in between Dungeons & Dragons campaigns which he takes far too seriously admonishing us that this is not the time for a “protest vote,” those of us down here where animals aren’t made of candy and grown adults don’t run around with swords and pointy hats know that there has never been a better time to vote third party.

This is the year. This is go time. There has never been a more perfect storm. Hillary has said with her words and her actions that she doesn’t need us. Even the Bushes are voting for her, for mercy’s sake. The woman doesn’t need us. We’re free to vote with our conscience and vote for the future and vote with the strength of our convictions that we refuse to be accomplices to endless world wars and spiraling climate chaos. We will use our vote to stand against that and to push for something new.

"Hark, brethren! A Jill Stein supporter approaches!" [Image by Shutterstock

The way to change things is not to anchor them into place and give them positive reinforcement for remaining as they are. In the real world, the way to change things is to change them. Getting Jill Stein to five percent of the popular vote will get her party’s campaigns federal funding, which will help give rise to a powerful progressive party that the Democrats will be forced to either compete with or be replaced by. Forcing the Democrats to watch a surprising amount of their progressive base hemorrhaging votes to Jill Stein will scare them to death because it will show them clear as day that they’re going to have to either shape up or ship out.

Our government is lying to us and the corporate media is helping them. If there was ever any doubt of this, WikiLeaks has dispelled it completely. The way to turn this thing around is not to keep doing what the known liars are telling us to do, it’s to turn around and march in the exact opposite direction. And we most certainly can turn it around by doing just that. There’s no realistic reason why we can’t.

[Featured Image by Shutterstock]