"It's no wonder that Hillary and Trump have respectively earned the highest 'unfavorable' ratings of any Democratic or Republican presidential candidate in history," D'Amico notes.
She then concludes her case for writing in Bernie Sanders by arguing that, by continuing to support candidates because they are not as bad as the alternative, voters are contributing to a cycle of disappointment.
"I won't hear that my decision to opt out of the lesser-of-two-evils paradigm and vote for a candidate who isn't on the ballot means I'm casting a vote for the 'other' side or throwing my vote away...If we keep settling for what we're given – in this case two candidates disliked by most Americans – nothing can change for the better. The progressive and patriotic move is to reverse this regressive way of thinking by refusing to vote for anyone unworthy of the Office of President."
According to polling data reported by The Hill, it seems that more supporters of Bernie Sanders are rejecting the idea that they must vote for the "lesser of two evils."
The problem, according to many commentators, is that the "lesser of two evils" logic makes political parties — Democrats in particular in 2016 — complacent and unwilling to do anything more than ensure that they secure electoral victories.
Matt Taibbi, writing for the Rolling Stone, worries that "Democrats like Hillary have been saying, 'The Republicans are worse!' for so long that they've begun to believe it excuses everything."
Hillary Clinton, many Sanders supporters believe, represents this establishment, a system Sanders has fought against throughout his political career.
Critics of Hillary Clinton, including Sanders himself, have pointed to her foundation's funding sources, which include governments that routinely commit heinous human rights violations. They have also noted that she and her husband, Bill Clinton, have both received over $100 million in speaking fees from some of America's largest and most influential financial institutions, according to an analysis by CNN.
In short, while Democrats often posture as the "party of the people," this rhetoric can only go so far to cover the thinly veiled reality: that Democrats are often on the receiving end of funding from the same corporations that bankroll the Republican Party.