The truth hurts

If a vote for a third-party candidate is a wasted vote, what would you call a vote for Clinton or Trump? An investment? I have very serious misgivings about both the morality and policy positions of the Democrat and Republican nominees and voting for either of them would require me to compromise my values. Because I am not prepared to do that, I plan on voting third party. And, the notion that I’m taking away a vote from a losing major party candidate is absolutely absurd because they never had my vote to begin with.

No. That's flawed thinking. Your vote for a person is a vote for that person, nobody else. If a major candidate can only win if the field is fixed by allowing only one other option, then it's the fault of the candidate, their party, and their platform. It's not the fault of a third candidate or its voters. Johnson/Stein supporters do so knowing that Trump may win if they do. The thing is, the major candidate who they make lose was never going to get their vote anyway. Here's the thing: most of us don't care. We hate both, both will screw us somehow, and we won't let the rest of the US bully us for our votes. We'll survive four years of one as well as the other and don't care who it is. Our vote isn't going to elect a third party, it's a show of electorate force to show the main parties they're losing America and need to stop screwing around. Saying our vote is wasted is saying a vote is a political move. And it is, you just don't understand the political move we're making.

You're likely to seeCruz supporters lean toward Johnson and Bernie supporters lean toward Stein.