I am distressed by “progressive” friends who are pledging to vote for Joe Biden because “a vote for anyone else is a vote for Trump.”

Democratic Party loyalists are not my concern. They can continue to vote for the lesser of two evils and watch their party become more evil, election after election.

It is discouraging to know this, but I am going to tell you anyway. When you vote for president of the USA in Oregon, your vote has no effect on the outcome of the election. You are merely expressing an opinion. Oregon is going to vote for the Democrat anyway. If all “progressives” were to withhold their votes, the Democrat will still win Oregon’s seven electoral votes. Secondly, our seven electoral votes will never make the win/lose difference in the Electoral College.

A vote for Biden is a vote for continued control of the U.S. economy by Wall Street, and control of our health care system by insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. A vote for Biden is a vote for expanding military budgets and treatment of Latin American refugees as criminals when they try to escape the violence of U.S.-supported dictators.

I am not going to “waste my vote” by supporting the people who made Trump look like a viable solution to the ongoing degradation of the USA working class.

I will use my vote to express the opinion that Howie Hawkins, author of the Green New Deal, is the best choice for president.