“I am an African-American male in my thirties. I am happily married with children.”

I congratulate and respect you for being an African-American male spouse and parent in a traditional family. Due to no fault of their own there are too many children being raised without two married parents.

“At the age of 23, I voted for the first time in the Presidential election for Barack Obama.”

For most of my past 50 years of voting I voted for the Republican presidential nominees. In 2008 I voted for Mr. Obama because of his passionate rhetoric and my optimism that he might be able to improve the plight circumstances of the typical African-American.

“And so in 2016, I did not vote for Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton.”

Very early in Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign I decided he was lacking in principles and knowledge of the Constitution but would probably win the Republican nomination. In my opinion Mrs. Clinton was incompetent in safeguarding classified information and Senator Sanders was a socialist so briefly I considered voting for the lesser of two evils. Instead I voted for the Constitution Party nominee Darrell Castle. I live in a “solid red” state so my vote was only slightly more effective than your vote for your mom.

I encourage you to vote for the candidate with principles that align with your own even if it means voting for a “loser”. If enough people do that then one party of the duopoly may take note and potentially alter its platform to gain an advantage over the other in the future.