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Voting for the lesser evil is like staying in a bad marriage. None of the issues ever get resolved and you remain unhappy. Voting for Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump is worse is the same thing, none of the important issues will be resolved and you will have to look yourself in the mirror each morning and convince yourself that it would have been worse. And as for the end-of-the-world scenarios that we are told will surely come as a result of a Trump presidency, well, like in a divorce, sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.

If progressives in America want change, they need to do what Trump supporters did and vote for someone that speaks for them and represents their political beliefs. No one who cares for peace or justice can point to Hillary Clinton as the right choice. She voted for the Iraq war, she was either behind or supported the destruction of entire cities and countries in the Middle East and she whole-heartedly supports Israel’s genocidal policies towards the Palestinians.

No one who cares about the plight of Blacks in America can claim Hillary Clinton is the right choice for President. Blacks in America are treated with contempt and simply put, the nature of race relations is such that White lives matter and Black lives don’t. Hillary Clinton certainly doesn’t seem willing to make the fundamental changes required in order to make Black lives matter in America. She is not likely to fight for reparations for Blacks, nor will she act to change the so-called justice system, two things without which race relations in America can never change. There is no reason to expect Hillary Clinton will bring an end to the ease with which guns can be bought and sold. We might see a few more cosmetic changes to the existing gun laws, there may be a few new “common sense” gun laws, as though there is any common sense in allowing people to carry guns in the first place.

There is no reason to expect that Hillary Clinton will deal with Israel in a different fashion than previous presidents. She will continue to arm and fund Israel even as the Jewish State continues unhindered to commit genocide. She has expressed her opposition to the call of Palestinian civil society to impose boycotts, divest and impose sanctions on Israel, and she supports the suppression of pro-Palestine and pro-Justice voices on campuses. She will surely work closely with American proxies like Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian dictator Sissi, all of whom maintain brutal regimes and for a price are willing to support the killing of Palestinians, Syrians, Libyans, Iraqis, Yemenites and any other people marked by Israel and its allies in the administration.

During the convention it was easy to forget all of this. All one had to do was inhale the sweet opium of “inspiring” speeches, that like sweet smoke from an opium den numb the senses. Speakers like Cory Booker and Michelle Obama that numb us with their family values, their poor hardworking mothers and fathers, stories of the Founding Fathers and the greatness of the Constitution. Michelle Obama said, “I want a President who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters.” We all want that but sadly there hasn’t been such a president yet. There has not been a single United States president that treated Black lives as though they matter, or Latinos or Native Americans. Certainly the Bill Clinton presidency is not a time at which Black America can look back with enthusiasm, as prisons swelled with Black men. And there is certainly no reason to expect Hillary Clinton will be any different.

Mrs. Obama also spoke about living in the White House, a house that was built by slaves. She said, “That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” Mentioning slavery and racism was good, but it begs the following question: How the hell could you? How could you live in that house and not demand that reparations be paid to the families of the slaves who built it? How do you spend eight years in the White House and not make sure that reparations are made the descendants of slaves upon whose backs the Unites States economy was built and countless White people became rich?

It was puzzling and deeply disappointing to see Bernie Sanders surrender and bow to the anointed Hillary Clinton. But neither the sweet-talking Cory Booker or the beautiful Michele Obama seemed to drug Bernie Sanders. He was as clear headed as always. Yet, even with the massive popular support he received, he was not permitted to become the democratic candidate for president. For reasons that remain unclear he agreed to bow to the demands of the party and join the “I am with her” crowd. A candidate such as Sanders is a rare occurrence in American politics, a once-in- a-lifetime occurrence, and to see him fall on his sword for the sake of Hillary Clinton was indeed very sad.

Liberals want to see the American empire behave less like an empire, but they still want to enjoy the benefits of its imperial supremacy. Progressives want to see America cease to exist as an empire, and that for the time being is an unrealistic expectation. America was deigned to be an empire and as such it must be ruthless. It is an empire that offers exclusive rights to rich white Christians at the expense of everyone else. Eventually and very reluctantly America allowed Jews and a few others to share in the privileges, on condition that they support the imperialistic goals of the United States. So for now progressives can vote for Jill Stein and though she may not become president of the United States, at least you won’t hate yourself the morning after the elections.