Dear Millennials: I voted 3rd party in 2012. Nothing happened

Democrats have a message to millennials: don’t vote third party or else you’re voting for Donald Trump. That’s simply not true.

As a registered Republican, I was “obligated ” to support the GOP nominee even when my primary candidate Ron Paul failed in both of his efforts in 2008 and 2012. I obliged the first time, voting for John McCain even though I agreed with him on hardly any issues — The Supreme Court after all!

By 2012, I had a change of heart. While I wasn’t in love with Mitt Romney and had serious issues with his running mate Paul Ryan, I bucked the system and voted third party. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t matter.

The news didn’t break the evening of election night that my sole vote had changed the course of history. No one even knew what I did other than me. I voted for someone I actually agreed with and felt good about it, and no pundit or party official could take that away from me.

Perhaps things would have been different if I lived in a swing state, but I lived in New York. Maybe I could have led the charge to get drunk and vote for Romney.