Here is another take. You vote for both:
- The group that most closely resembles what you want AND
- The group that most likely will listen to your requests during the administration
If there are things you want changed, Nov 5 is not the last day but the beginning. The next president will make decisions for 4 years, and every decision is influenced by people and our voices.
Ask yourself, between Harris and Trump, which administration is most likely to want the things I want, and which is most likely to listen and be influenced by my side of political views and the people I support?
For me, the answer is a hard NO on Trump, and a pretty solid Yes on Harris.
Like the other thread abut guns. Sure, the Dems talk about wanting gun reform and it never gets done because they don't have a super majority in Congress. But the GOP is 100% against it and will never contribute. Which side is more likely to do anything to help the reform I want to see? 4 years of Dems is a good amount of time to press for issues and seek some improvements. If I let the GOP have 4 more years, we are not even going to talk about change until the next election.
Those that are willing to sit out an election because the Dems are not perfect, are inflicting the worst candidate on all of us and themselves. Don't you dare later complain about school shootings, wealth inequality, tax cuts for the rich, abuse of queer folks, women's rights, international inhumane policy. Don't inflict Trump on us and then pretend to care about our issues or be on our side. If you sit out, you've picked a side.
We don't live in a perfect world. Someone is going to be president for the next 4 years, and at this stage of the game we have 2 distinct choices.
Also, what you called half-assed someone else might call the democracy process. Just because YOU want something doesn't mean I want the same thing. Your vision for how to solve Palestine or Ukraine or improve wealth equality might be vastly different from mine. Just because you don't get exactly what you want doesn't mean the system is useless or not worth participating in. If you were to get exactly what you want, then I'd be getting walked over. If I get exactly what I want, then you'd say you are not being heard.
The only fair system is to elect a big-tent party and then work through dialog on trying to reach either consensus or fair compromise on the various topics. But we won't have that option if we let the fascists get control and do their Project 2025 thing while ignoring us.