Why a protest vote makes sense

Without ranked choice voting people really don't have much of a say unless their preferred candidate gets the nomination from just two different parties.
So lets say a Bernie fan votes for Trump over Biden. You might say that person is an idiot, but that's a matter of perspective.

The party had a choice of a candidate and they disagree with their choice. Since they no longer get a choice they cast a protest vote for Trump instead, basically sending a message to the Democrats that as long as they keep on voting for neoliberals they will keep voting Republican in an effort to make them run a better candidate.

It's easy to insult these people, but lets think about it for a second... Did Obama stop bombing brown people after his campaign of 'Hope' and 'Change'? Oh wait... He bombed even more people... So much for hope and change... So you can't exactly blame people that want a progressive candidate voting AGAINST neoliberals.

They feel that their vote is best spent trying to change the liberal party rather than voting against the republican party because they believe that change within the liberal party is actually possible for the next election while the republican party is a lost cause.

Sure, it might cost democrats an election, but guess what? If democrats win they're just going to use the same strategy to win a second term and that strategy will probably still involve foreign regime change and bombing brown people.