How do you choose who to vote for? Are you an "one-issue" voter? Is there a single cause or principle that a candidate must support to get your vote? Abortion (pro or con)? Second Amendment (pro or con)? Health care? Education?
I'm not a one-issue voter. All the things I mentioned in the last paragraph, and many others, are important to me...but no one of them is a deal-breaker. For one thing, I have found that someone who agrees with me on most of them probably agrees with me on the others, even if he or she hasn't campaigned on that issue. And even if the candidate takes a position on one of them that I oppose, well--that's just one vote on one issue. I would be cutting off my nose to spite my face if I let that one disagreement keep me from supporting someone who agreed with me on everything else.
And even if the candidate's position isn't precisely the same as mine--he/she prefers a single-payer health-care system while I think a public option among other options is a better way to go, for instance--it's still preferable to vote for someone who is close to my point of view than to not vote at all.
You see, that's the problem: If not having a perfect candidate means you won't support a good candidate--or support some "perfect" third-party person who has a snowball's chance in hell of winning--then you're giving up. You're throwing in the towel. I might even say you're throwing a tantrum: "If I can't have everything I want, I don't want anything at all!"
Don't retreat to your corner and pout because your "perfect" candidate isn't running. That's like going hungry because Mom made spaghetti when you wanted lasagna. Accept the compromise--that's ultimately what governing is all about.
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