Trying something new: a bad reason to vote for Sanders or Trump

While we know that our world is being turned topsy-turvy by the things that are happening in it, it can be instructive to look at each of our personal lives before deciding that what we have isn't working.
I hear all the time that what we have isn't working and that it's time to "try something new". Pundits from all avenues in the media do their best in their own gripping way, to convince us that the world is falling apart. In many ways, it is, but one way to look at things has always been the world's effect on one's own life. Take the time to introspect and say, "Is my life going worse now than it was ten or twenty years ago?" In many cases, we are better off than we were years ago. In some things, not so much.
I would say that our freedoms have been reduced in the past couple of decades. I would put the responsibility for that reduction in liberty squarely on those who believe that more government involvement in our every day lives is good. While it may have led to safer playground equipment at elementary schools, it has also led to intrusion into individuals and family's lives that wasn't there in the 1950s, for example.
Those on the left claim that they are worse off, that poverty is worse, that racism is increasing, and that curtailing certain industries in America will affect the world climate enough to reverse climate change and will be worth the vast toll it takes on the economy. The facts don't bear this out. Poverty may be on the rise, but it is a general poverty of a nation that because of intrusive over-regulation, is moving slowly out of first world status. Racism, despite what you hear from the race-baiters and the media, despite what you hear from Black Lives Matter, isn't worsening and has instead seen vast positive changes since the days of Martin Luther King Jr. Climate change cannot be appreciably fixed by the U.S. stopping it's coal production and other extreme measures. These measures are designed to make people feel good about what they're doing and have virtually no impact on world climate.
People have this insane desire to "try something new" when what they have had, has largely been working. On the left, people want to vote for Bernie Sanders because he represents a change. He also represents a profound detachment from reality when it comes to advocating free this and free that, with no money to pay for it. Electing Hillary Clinton for no other reason that because she is female is an idiotic reason to elect someone. People voted for Obama because he would be the first black president, and that was equally stupid.
On the right, people would elect Trump because they are sick of the "establishment" not doing what it was elected to do. Never mind that from all indications, Trump is the kind of man who would be dictator if he could (not unlike Obama), and who has misrepresented himself on many fronts. Trump truly does not represent conservative values, which is another topic in and of itself.
The bottom line is, change for the sake of change, just to "try something new" is a poor reason to vote for someone who will likely make life worse for most people. Though our current system has produced some bad results lately, it is a system that largely has worked throughout American history. Would it not be better to try and find better candidates and encourage statesmanship than to throw out the baby with the bathwater? I'm thinking it would, but then again, I'm more optimistic than some.

Liberty and the current government crisis

I cannot go along with those who claim doomsday is just past the horizon. Though I believe there may come a time when the foibles of our political leadership have led us down a road of no return, I find it counterproductive to assume that we are already there. That may be the case and preparing for it should be on every thinking person's mind (and not only on their minds, but in their plans and in their actions, such as acquiring needed resources in the eventuality of such a disaster as the collapse of our economy) from time to time, but to continually dwell upon it removes all hope and joy from life.
So what do I think needs to be done, right here, right now? If the elections are truly a farce, rigged, and people are truly fraudulently elected--if the American people are truly fools who will elect whomever the media convinces them should be elected--if no matter who I elect caters to the media, the corporations, George Soros, or anyone else who is out there pulling strings, then nothing I do matters. Why should I do anything other than prepare for the eventual war that will occur?
The reason is this, I do not believe that we should give up non-violent measures to preserve life and liberty until all other measures have been exhausted.
That being said, we see through national polling (not discounting that the polls themselves could be rigged, but I'm not as much of a conspiracist to believe that every pollster is bought and paid for) that all of the Republicans, save Donald Trump, beat any Democrat running. This looms large because of one thing--the recent demise of a true champion of the Constitution on the Supreme Court--Antonin Scalia. With the Court in a crucial balance right now, one more leftist on it could totally undo our Constitution. If we get another Supreme Court justice like Sonia Sotomayor to replace Scalia, say goodbye to our 2nd Amendment rights.
That makes it imperative for any Constitution loving American to vote and to vote for the most conservative candidate who can actually win. Voting for a Libertarian or Constitution Party candidate doesn't get the job done of electing a candidate who will nominate a justice who actually believes in and affirms the original intent of the Constitution. This election is more crucial than any other, and the death of Scalia makes it even more so. Trump isn't the candidate who would defeat Clinton or Sanders, and it's arguable that he's even a conservative. It's highly questionable who he might nominate as a Supreme Court justice. Yet for conservatives to say that they won't vote for him if he's the Republican candidate is to virtually give the presidency to the left, and thus tearing to shreds the remaining fabric of our beloved Constitution. The best thing is to make sure that Trump isn't the candidate representing conservative values, but if he is, he is a far better choice than either Hillary or "the Bern". Unless, of course, your goal is to undermine the Constitution and reduce liberty in America. If that's your goal, my advice is to vote for one of the leftist candidates, and then, when you find that your liberty has been usurped by those who would curtail your freedom of speech, your ability to call terrorism terrorism, your ability to speak your mind without recrimination, your ability to drive as far as you want to in whatever vehicle you want to drive--then you can take full responsibility for your actions. For each man or woman must own up to the decisions they make and the causes they advocate--and the results that come from those choices.
Yes, we might be headed down a path of destruction, but to do nothing to stop it, or if we try and hasten it, is in my mind a trail to ruin. I will be there to fight, if and when the time comes, but I will not give up on the America in which I grew up. I will not give up on the fighting spirit of liberty that has dwelt in the heart of every true American since the day our Founder first signed the great Declaration. Those Founders fought for liberty, even to be wrong.