Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio's daily program "The Dean Obeidallah Show" and a columnist for The Daily Beast. Follow him @DeanObeidallah. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.
(CNN)On Saturday night, the Libertarian Party formally nominated as its 2020 presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen, a psychology lecturer at Clemson University. In celebration, Jorgensen promptly took to Twitter to "repurpose" Hillary's Clinton's 2016 "I'm With Her" slogan as her own. On Sunday, the slogan was trending as Libertarians promoted it and self-described Clinton supporters pushed back.
Jorgensen does advocate some positions that many progressives, including me, find appealing, such as putting a stop to US involvement in what feels to be never-ending wars. She also lays out other positions, however, that I vehemently disagree with, such as eliminating federal programs that help the poor.
But here's the cold hard truth in 2020: the hashtag "I'm with Her" should be revised to more accurately read "I'm with Donald Trump" -- because that's what voting for her or any third-party candidate means in this election. Here's more cold, hard truth given our two-party system: If you want to defeat Trump in 2020, the only choice is Joe Biden.
This is especially true after the lessons of the 2016 presidential election. As a CNN analysis confirms, Clinton would have won the presidency if she had received the bulk of the ballots cast for the leading third-party candidates, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, in key swing states. Stein alone picked up more votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin than Trump's margin of victory in each of these states, which were seen as the key to Trump's victory.
No one should blame Stein or Johnson for Clinton losing -- there's no way to know for sure that all those who cast a ballot for either of those third-party candidates would've voted for Clinton -- or even voted at all. But given what we saw in 2016, we are all on notice for 2020 that the best shot to defeat Trump is by voting for the Democratic nominee.
Trump's 'libertarianism' endangers the public
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I and countless others in our country simply don't have the privilege to demand purity or vote for a third party to send a message in 2020. To many, defeating Trump is personal. After all, his words and policies have caused us personal pain.
For example, I'm Muslim. Trump made Muslim bashing a centerpiece of his 2016 campaign, from his call for "a total and complete shutdown" on Muslims entering the country to comments like "Islam hates us." One of his first acts after being sworn in was to sign a ban targeting travelers from various Muslim majority nations. And Trump's stirring up hate against my community has continued with his retweets of vile bigots, including just a few weeks ago when he retweeted a right-wing activist -- someone the Anti-Defamation League has dubbed "an anti-Muslim blogger" -- who suggested that Muslims in America might have more rights than Christians to worship during the Covid-19 shutdowns. (In reality, US mosques were closed for services -- even during the recently concluded holy month of Ramadan.)
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Trump has targeted various other communities with his demonizing rhetoric and discriminatory policies, from painting Hispanic immigrants as a dangerous threat to the US to attacking the rights of the LGBTQ community. He has slammed as "sons of bitches" the mostly black NFL players who took a knee during the national anthem to protest against racism and police brutality, while praising Confederate monuments -- that to many celebrate white supremacy -- as being "beautiful." Trump has also defended various high-profile Republican men like Alabama politician Roy Moore and former Fox News head Roger Ailes against allegations of sexual misconduct while often attacking women who come forward as "liars."
If Trump wins in 2020, common sense says we can expect more of the same from him. If that doesn't trouble you, then vote third party or sit out this election awaiting the perfect candidate. But for those who want to help end this political nightmare there is only one choice come November -- and that's Biden.
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