Bernie Sanders was easily the best candidate in the Democratic primary. How such a principled and intelligent man lost to a corporate, war monger like Hillary Clinton was surely lost on many (myself included). However, that mystery was solved as a plot against Sanders was unveiled in a series of emails leaked by Wikileaks.

Such a desperate act to help guarantee Clinton the election is generally what we would expect to find in corrupt countries like Venezuela, North Korea, Haiti, and so on. We were always supposed to be a functioning democracy. So, the fact that a major party here in the United States resorted to similar tactics is both depressing and infuriating.

Bernie Sanders' supporters are upset and have every right to be. But while there are many Sanders supporters that are reasonably upset with such corruption, there's the Bernie or Bust crowd. According to the Bernie or Bust school of thought, the threat of a possible Trump Presidency is a non issue. What matters is a principled vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party in order to combat the corruption that seriously affects our system. Otherwise, we might as well stay home.

Like Sanders, Jill Stein is a very respectable and principled candidate, but there's one problem: a third party becoming president is impossible. Ever since 1992, third party candidates haven't even been able to make it into the debates, let alone win the nomination. This is partly due to the fact that under the Commission of Presidential Debates (an organization that consists of Republicans and Democrats), third party candidates are required to poll at 15% to even be considered. However, since the media hardly covers third party candidates, it's hard to accomplish (although Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is approaching 10 % in recent polls, while Jill Stein hasn't even broken 5%)

We need to keep in mind that Donald Trump is in this election. Donald Trump is a man who openly mocks the disabled, repeatedly calls for banning foreign Muslims, and advocates for war crimes like torturing and killing civilians. Hillary Clinton, as corrupt as she is, will simply maintain the status quo.

Third parties certainly deserve a platform to make their ideas known to the general public. This election, however, is not the time to address this issue. What matters right now is the most realistic choice and that is Hillary Clinton whether we like it or not. If my advice is not taken seriously, then we will have a dark future ahead of us.