As we move past Super Tuesday, one question lays voters’ minds: who should I vote for? More accurately, a better question might be, “What candidate should I vote for OTHER than Donald Trump?”
As expected, President Trump won every state that participated in Super Tuesday as the republican candidate.
Meanwhile, as updates continue, Joe Biden is leading the democratic race with 596 delegates against Bernie Sanders’ 531 candidates.
Although our political system is not a strict, bipartisan system, the campaigns for every position are dominated by the reds and the blues.
Many, like myself, are in favor of third-party candidates who break away from this bipartisan mold, however, feel stuck because we understand the majority doesn’t think the same way.
To those who feel Trump’s attitude and past term was outrageous, that Biden remains out-of-touch with current issues and lacks a foundation and that Sanders preaches ideals against American foundations on capitalism and democracy, I encourage you to vote for a third-party candidate.
The common argument against this mindset is that a third-party vote is a “wasted vote” and third-party candidates aren’t “real candidates.”
However, although minuscule in comparison to the votes received by Clinton and Trump, the last presidential election garnered the highest vote total for a Libertarian candidate in history with Gary Johnson and running mate, Bill Weld, receiving over four million votes (3.28% of the total vote).
Even if the event of a third-party win is unlikely, I encourage more young voters to take the step and “waste” your vote. The only thing stopping voters from changing the dominant parties are voters themselves.
A belief I have is that many voters vote selfishly. If the policy the favored-candidate runs on is “humanitarian” in nature, I think many voters subconsciously use this information to justify their support as morally superior to the opposition.
In turn, voters vote on policies not for the future, but for the present.
Therefore, I believe voters should turn their focus on the now to focus on the “then”, voting third-party being the most effective way to do this.
By sticking to the Republican and Democratic parties, the United States will be forever plagued by the cycle from red to blue and vise versa every four to eight years, continuing this division among the American people as seen in every election since day one.
