I’m not a fan of HRC.

But I’m no Bernie-for-the-revolution person either.

No election will bring us the revolution we need. Even electing Jill Stein or Sanders would do the same as electing the “Hope” and “Change” of Obama.

The ball is still in our court.

And Hillary Clinton is not the same as Trump. I much rather fight the Clinton administration than the Trump administration.

That’s why I vote for whom I vote. I vote for who I will have to struggle and fight against. I rather fight against a centrist Supreme Court rather than a right wing court. I rather fight against Clinton appointees rather than Trump partisans from the GOP.

I’m not excited about HRC. And I donated to Sanders, (and Stein) but frankly, he’s too far right for me (and so is she). But I know I’ll never have a candidate I really like because that’s not what elections are for.

That’s what organizing is for.

That’s why I’ll vote strategically but organize for four years. That’s why my vote matters, but not as much as what I do for the rest of those years.

Don’t try to tell me, “That’s why we don’t have third parties,” because you and I know that’s not how this system was designed. We have a system designed to thwart real direct democracy via voting. We have a system designed to have only two parties. Not coalitions. There won’t be any third parties for long. We can’t vote our way out of this mess anyhow, even if we had a dozen choices.

But that’s why we have to keep on fighting using our freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and talking to our neighbors and knocking on doors right now.

We have a lot work to do. Many of our neighbors plan to vote Trump. We have to talk to them and change their minds. This isn’t something that you need to sign up for. This isn’t something that we need to wait for our “political leaders” to show us the way. This is you talking to someone else about politics. This is democracy. This is direct action.

I can’t help HRC run a better campaign. I’m legit worried she’ll screw this up. But that’s not my role. I wish HRC was an actual leftist. Frankly, Bernie was no savior either. We cannot win that battle electorally, ever. That’s the battle we win in the years interim to an election.

But this isn’t about her. This is about the landscape under which we will have to organize and fight back. This is important and even though I am opposed to much/most(?) of Clinton’s policies (both Clintons) my vote never means I agree with any candidate. Because I’ll always be fighting. Always. Because even good candidates need us to fight.

Because without that organizing, we will never ever get what we need.

No candidate will ever save you.

And we will always need to fight back.

I may not ever be “with her”; but as long as this race is tight, I’ll work to get her to win. — Rodolfo Palma