Let’s face it, this year our options in the voting booth are historically terrible. Poll after poll after poll has told the same story: the majority of Americans, some six in 10 by most counts, view both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton negatively. Not, “That movie was a real waste of time,” negatively; more like, “If my daughter goes out with him she may not come home again,” negatively.
Another way to say that is, most people either despise or fear both major party candidates, which befuddles both presidential contenders and their insular entourages but not the rest of us. That’s why this year millions of voters are exploring casting their ballot for third, and even fourth, party candidates. But 2016 is a year marked by terrible electoral options all around.
The desire for another option was evidenced in the early mini-surge of Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who was hovering in the 8 to 9% range in national polls before the political conventions this summer. That was before people even knew who he was, so many voters were elated to find out there was someone on their ballots who wasn’t Trump or Clinton.
Then Johnson put down his marijuana pipe and started to introduce himself to voters. He promptly became the butt of every late-night comedian’s jokes for blanking on the devastated Syrian city Aleppo. Then he failed to name a single world leader when lobbed a softball question in a town hall. Now when you type in his name on Google, “Gary Johnson snaps at reporter” pops up. It’s no wonder his poll numbers have steadily declined since he’s hit the trail.
Then there’s Green party candidate Jill Stein – an alternative to the alternative. “I will have trouble sleeping at night if Donald Trump is elected,” Stein said earlier this cycle at a CNN town hall. “I will also have trouble sleeping at night if Hillary Clinton is elected. And as despicable as Donald Trump’s words are, I find Hillary Clinton’s actions and track record is very troubling.”
But a cursory look at Stein’s platform reveals she’s living in an alternative universe from most American voters. While most voters fear the growth of Isis, she’s calling for cutting military spending by 50% along with closing more than 700 US military bases abroad. This may be why her longshot bid keeps her hovering at around the 2% mark in national polls.
In Utah and 11 other states, voters will see Evan McMullin on their ballots. The former CIA operative and Republican congressional staffer is taking advantage of Trump’s repugnance to many Mormons and is angling to win just one state in order to have his name thrust before the all-important electoral college.
McMullin makes sense for many Utah voters who say their faith prohibits them from supporting either Trump or Clinton. But barring deep religious conviction, in other states the notion of casting a protest vote is just too dangerous in this cycle.
The Grand Ole Party is having a grand ole food fight for all to see. The Tea Party wing of the party has morphed into a Trump-fueled alt-right populist movement that trusts Alex Jones conspiracy theories more than facts and data. And Trump himself has even lashed out at the House speaker, Paul Ryan, and other congressional Republicans in recent weeks.
But in a sign of the times for the GOP, Ryan abandoned Trump last month only to cast his vote for him this week. It’s that kind of unprincipled, even feckless, leadership from the Republican party that led to the rise of the misogynistic and racist Donald Trump. Republican leaders have stoked fear in their base since President Obama was elected and now they have lost control of their own narrative and voters.
That’s why this isn’t the year to mess with a third-party vote – since no third-party candidate is going to win, all those votes might do is prevent a Clinton victory, putting the GOP meltdown front and center in global governance.
If you were a progressive Bernie Sanders supporter who cares about the senator’s soaring ideals, you’d be voting against your interests to vote third or fourth party this year, because that protest vote is just giving Trump an opening to transform the nation in his glitzy yet vacuous image. A top Trump official even reportedly admitted that the campaign is banking on voter suppression efforts to help keep Clinton out of the White House. Don’t let them suppress your vote or ideals on election day.
Even though the nation’s founders avoided setting up a partisan government, in the nation’s infancy, we quickly grew into a two-party system. We should have a national dialogue after this election about changing that. But not until 9 November. On election day, it’s crucial to vote your principles within the system we currently have.
