When you think of a standard United States presidential election, two parties come to mind. America has come to know the two political divisions of Republicans and Democrats. But see, now it's 2016. We started off with candidates who resembled Colonel Sanders (what a name coincidence), Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter, Kevin Malone from The Office, and a guy whose hair looks like a corn husk. Just for laughs, let me give you some visuals.
I really hope you got a laugh out of some of these. But now, onto actual political discussion. Early in the month of May, Ted Cruz backed out of the Republican race after months and months of dirty politics from Trump. Then later on in mid-July, Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign. So now, about two and a half months remain before Americans hit the polls in November.
Many conservatives and Bernie socialists are at a loss faced with what they see as a "lesser of two evils" type election. But then, a media surge for Gary Johnson, a Libertarian and the former governor of New Mexico began. Johnson's Libertarian platform consists of leaving social issues up to the individual. Such social issues include abortion and legal marijuana use. As far as the economics go, Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, speak of cutting wasteful spending which is good, yet present a slightly oversimplified stance on balancing the budget. FYI: It's not as simple as every candidate makes it sound. I would say Johnson is a fairly mediocre candidate. Okay, so now we have sucky, suckier and mediocre. What a time to be alive. #EverybodySucks2016.
But here's the thing: third party candidates are never successful in a presidential race. Valiant efforts were made in 1912 by FDR and in 1992 by Ross Perot. These candidates drew votes away from the candidate with a similar platform, thus, a guaranteed victory for the opposing party. In this election Johnson is peeling away some of the conservative vote from Donald Trump. In all honesty, I am not a huge fan of Trump, but my strong disagreement with Hillary's progressive platform greatly outweighs my dislike of Donald Trump. Many conservatives are stuck with this ultimatum and it will drive some to stay home on election day. My belief is that the Republican Party and the Republican media favored the wrong candidate. But that does not mean we should stay home, we shall not give up our liberties or take them for granted when they are fought for by our military men and women. We must do it for them, and to defeat the greater of the two evils.
