For this post, I'm going to focus on the three main third party candidates: Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Evan McMullin. There are about 19 other third party candidates, most of which are barely polling and have no chances of winning.
Gary Johnson
Gary Johnson just simply isn’t smart enough of a candidate. He’s made plenty of ridiculous mistakes and gaffes (What is Aleppo, couldn’t name his favorite foreign leader), and thinks the only way he would be able to gain in the polls is through the debate. If anyone had to sit through a debate and watch Clinton and Trump fight it out with Johnson holding his tongue in a corner, we’d all go insane. Believe me, I’m not trying to insult Libertarians. I actually think Bill Weld, Johnson’s vice-presidential nominee, is a very smart man who I could conceivably see running this country. However, Gary Johnson just simply isn’t the nominee that could have made the presence of the libertarian party stronger. If you want to vote for Gary Johnson, a vote for Hillary and Trump is a better idea. Whichever one you most agree with. The time to protest this election is over, it's happened. We have the two least liked Presidential candidates of all time, and there's mothing you can do to change that fact. Voting for Johnson is basically a wasted vote, because that vote goes nowhere, and doesn't really effect one of the major parties platform positions.
Jill Stein
Oh boy, Jill Stein. She is perhaps the least qualified candidate, maybe even more than Donald Trump, and I do not take that lightly. She’s way to the left, even compared to Bernie, and many of her policies are completely unrealistic, such as moving to 100% renewable energy by 2030. She also just takes a solid 2% away from Hillary Clinton, which if this election were closer, would be a throwback to the 200 election with Ralph Nader. Jill Stein is simply not qualified to be President, but if you want a president who speaks about Harambe, then she’s your candidate. However, if you are an upset Bernie Sanders supporter, please go vote for Clinton. Jill Stein is a wasted vote, whereas a vote for Clinton will actually translate to the progress Sanders tried to achieve during the primary process.
Evan McMmullin
Evan McMmullin is probably the best of all three. He worked in the CIA for 11 years and was a national security adviser for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He's also worked as a policy director for GOP House campaigns . Now, he’s thrown his hat into the ring and is having huge successes in Utah, his home state. Utah, over the past month, has gone from a solid red state to a tossup, with McMmullin either taking the lead or trailing behind Trump by a couple points. McMmullin, however, is what I would consider a Ted Cruz Republican, someone who is staunchly conservative. I would say he is the most qualified for the job out of all three, and more qualified than Trump. Voting for him is the best option if you’re a Republican who doesn't want to see Trump take office, but also doesn't want to be on record voting for Clinton.
Could any of these people win?
Simple answer-no. The United States election system works in a first-past-the-post system, where majority rules. So if you win a state by a tenth of a percent, you still win. This favors the larger parties, Republicans and Democrats, as opposed to the smaller third parties. The only possible way one of these people could secure the presidency is by winning a state or two, and subsequently tying up the electoral college so that nobody gets the necessary 270 electoral votes. When something like this happens, the vote for President goes to the House of Representatives where each state gets a vote. Because the House of Representatives is controlled by the GOP, and will most likely be controlled by the GOP after November 8th, they will either choose Evan McMmullin or Donald Trump, which will be a difficult decision for the broken party.
No comments:
Post a Comment