The Glowing Alternative to Clinton / Trump

Hi.

There's this little thing you've been missing.

There are more than two candidates on the ballot this year.

"Are you talking about third parties? That's a wasted vote. A spoiler vote."

Yes, that's what I always heard, too. I heard it when I was a little kid and laughed at Ross Perot before I knew anything about politics. I heard it every presidential election year. I'm hearing it louder than ever this year. But this time, I actually looked into Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, read the arguments for and against third parties, and found some information that turned my worldview on its head. You're being lied to and you're being tricked. Allow me to explain, with sound citations. Let me guess what you're thinking...

"Nobody supports third parties."

Why don't Americans support third parties as much as the major two parties? One main reason they're hesitant is that other Americans don't support third parties. Nearly everyone thinks, "I can't support them unless other people do first." It's a self-imposed catch-22.

Another reason is that everything about our presidential election process is two-party focused. It is literally impossible for a Libertarian or Green Party candidate to participate in primary debates which are divided between "Democratic" and "Republican." Sure, they can hold their own debates off to the side. But how can that possibly compete with the longstanding two-party tradition sponsored on mainstream TV? These two parties got established a long, long time ago, and they have incredible wealth, which means power. So they not only boost the horses they want in the race, as we now know for a fact thanks to the leaked DNC emails; they run the racetracks and decide which horses get to run.

You might think that most Americans prefer Democratic and Republican views, and they just aren't interested in third parties. But the most recent Pew poll shows that 34% of Americans identify as Independent, which means Independents are the largest group of American voters. Furthermore, 76% of voters this year wanted third parties included in the debates between Clinton and Trump. When you think about it, it's insane that we have four candidates on the ballot and two are not being included in these national debates.

We can conclude that the debate-runners are more interested in limiting the debates than giving the American people what they want. Why would that be?

The debates are run by the Commission on Presidential Debates. This commission was founded in the 1980s by a Republican and a Democrat, but now very dubiously claims impartiality among its tiny board of directors.

The CPD set a 15% polling requirement for a candidate to be included in the debates, which may not sound like much, but when you're fighting a two-party lockdown and billions in funding, every single percentage point is a struggle and victory. Your biggest hurdle is voters even knowing who you are and your platform and persona, not whether they like or agree with you; without anywhere near the level of funding and support your opponents receive, you have to become famous in the United States. Furthermore, remember that this year we have four candidates, which makes 15% a mere 11% away from a winning share of support (26%). On top of that, the CPD chose which polls to go by, and there is something very fishy about these polls. Sound like a conspiracy theory? Well, you can read about it here. In particular, the polls downplay the opinions of Independents and of Millennials, who are the biggest supporters of third-party candidates.

Maybe the CPD is scared. They should be: in some polls, Gary Johnson was polling around 13%, dangerously close to crashing their carefully-closed debates.

What this should make clear is that everything about our elections is stacked to give publicity to two-party candidates and decrease voters' confidence that a vote for a third-party candidate could have any chance of getting that candidate elected. I don't suppose you thought it a coincidence that out of all the Americans in this country, our two major picks for president are a millionaire and billionaire.

So to summarize, the main reasons Americans don't support third-party candidates is that they barely know who they are and have the impression that nobody else will vote for them anyway, all courtesy of a corrupt two-party system bristling with money. And Americans hate their handpicked options so much this year that third parties still managed to achieve over 10% in the mainstream media polls, which is a huge percentage considering how the system is stacked.

The reality is that about 19% of Millennials support Johnson and 9% support Stein, which means that nearly 30% of our future dominant voters support third parties even despite the rigging. Gen Xers are more supportive of third parties than the generations prior to them, and so on. The more time passes, the more each generation gets sick of the system and stops buying in to the two-party lesser-evil polarization. Just over 50% of eligible US voters actually vote. In other words, if these Millennials who aren't voting did vote this year, they could hand the election to a third-party candidate and completely disrupt this two-party system.

"I have to vote for x or y could win."

Before addressing this idea, I have another fearful what-if scenario for you. If the Democratic party rigs the election for a candidate and everyone finds out about it, and then people vote for that candidate anyway, what will those in power conclude? Can we afford to send that message? Think about the consequences of sending that message not just for the next four years, but indefinitely.

Now, there are indeed marked differences between Democrats and Republicans. As someone who agrees more with Democrats, I could note that they are more supportive of gay rights, minorities, women's rights, and protecting the environment. However, on the whole, Democrats and Republicans rely on voters polarizing to one or the other of these parties so that they can ensure reliable maintenance of the things that they agree on and which truly matter to them. Do you think a politician raking in thousands and millions from corporations gives a damn whether a woman can get an abortion or two gay people marry? These things are important to us, but smokescreens for them.

And we have evidence that heavily implies these two are in cahoots. Their kids are friends. Bill Clinton and Donald Trump had a long, friendly discussion about Trump running this year, one of many over the years involving Trump's donations to the Clinton Foundation and such. Bill and Donald are longtime pals.

Meanwhile, things you can rest assured will continue no matter which party is in power are:

・War and a bloated military budget
・Income inequality
・Support for fossil fuel industries and insufficient climate change progress
・Increases in the power of the few
・Student funding of the government via student loan interest
・Billions in support of Israel while this student loan debt crisis continues
・Unreliable healthcare and retirement benefits
・Dismissal of the poor

You have become acclimated to incremental changes. Civil rights step forward an inch, civil rights step back an inch. A pipeline is vetoed, a pipeline is approved. Troops are pulled out, drones are sent in. Isn't it obvious by now, after all the lies to get us to war, the airstrikes and drone strikes on civilians and hospitals, the financial perks for Wall Street and the wealthy, the fraying of retirement benefits, the crippled state of Millennials with unprecedented student loan debt, the NSA spying, the revelations from Wikileaks, etc., that neither Democrats or Republicans are actually interested in helping out the average citizen? Every time you buy into this lesser-evil voting concept the people engaging in all of the above keep laughing. A major difference between war hawk Hillary Clinton and bigot Donald Trump is that Clinton knows how to sound smooth when she supports a coup in Honduras and then turns away the refugees. (For an extensive list of wrongdoings by Clinton, see here.)

You don't have to vote Democrat or Republican to "save us." We need actual change, because we cannot afford a continuation of issues like the power vacuum we created for ISIS and the resultant refugee crisis sending the world into turmoil; the inability of our up-and-coming main workforce to escape debt, buy a house, or expect decent retirement; and the climate change crisis that's already causing record temperatures and natural disasters. Our nations, planet, and citizens are in big trouble. Clinton is not going to solve these things. Trump is not going to solve these things. Once in power, they will have almost no incentive to do so.

Here is what an actually different platform from a 100% citizen-funded, non-corporate candidate looks like.

This is from the website of Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Bizarrely, when people see something like this, they often say it is unrealistic. I am baffled as to why simply canceling government-held student loan debt seems unrealistic to someone who just kind of shrugs when they hear about our military budget or the huge increase in funding to Israel. It isn't unrealistic; it's extremely easy to help US citizens. This is a very wealthy country. It's just that when your government is largely funded by large corporations, there is very little incentive for them to do what people want. Especially when they profit from things like fossil fuel industries or student loan interest. And especially when people make it clear they will continue to support you even when you baldly stack the elections.

Let me further acquaint you with Dr. Jill Stein. After being denied access to the debates, she protested outside with supporters before being forced to leave (she also protested with Black Lives Matter and at the Dakota Pipeline). But she was still able to debate: Democracy Now hosted a debate wherein they played the questions and answers from the debate between Clinton and Trump, then gave Stein the same amount of time to respond. (Gary Johnson declined to participate.) So I strongly urge you to watch this debate and get a sense of the Green Party candidate's personality and platform. You deserve to hear a debate from more than two parties. Stein's a breath of fresh air in the debate: calm, intelligent, graceful, sincere, and deeply concerned. I also urge you to question and research her statements. If you have heard that this Harvard-graduated medical doctor is "anti-science," you have been duped by a depressingly effective smear campaign and may correct this myth here.

If Jill Stein isn't for you, check out Gary Johnson.

As Americans are increasingly sickened by their government and corrupt choices for the office of president, you can pick a third option. Help a candidate who's actually interested in helping you. If a third party gets 5% in an election, they are eligible for federal funding, and it will at the very least help them in state or smaller elections. Also, people are more likely to support third-party candidates the more support those candidates get. So it's not true that if your candidate doesn't win, your vote is wasted.

I should also acknowledge that if a third party got elected, they would absolutely have a difficult time getting anything done on their own with all of the two-party opposition in government, which is why a third-party president would require citizen support in the form of protests, etc. But that's what we need anyway, which is why Occupy Wall Street happened -- but also part of why it failed: a movement needs leaders and rallying voices. Furthermore, the only reason Clinton/Trump might have an easier time getting things done is that by and large they will be things you don't want, but elites do.

Additionally, you can link up with someone who would otherwise vote Clinton/Trump and both agree to vote third party so it all evens out, if you're really that driven by fear of the "spoiler effect."

We don't have to keep buying in to this corrupt system where the candidates are handpicked by wealth or shove their way in with the same. This year, elect to step outside of that system and cast your vote to support someone who actually has your interests at heart.

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I just found out Conservative Evan McMullin announced his run for Independent candidate this month, so now there are 5 presidential candidates in the race.

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Image Sources
Simpsons
Stein tweet