The bipartisan political party system which has existed in the U.S. since this country’s nascent years is a source of genuine anathema to me.

I don’t like the whole polarization involved with bipartisan politics, and it seems that politicians who appear (and claim) to be at opposite ends of the political spectrum are much more similar than they are perceived to be.

All in all, I truly dislike the Democrat-or-Republican-or-nothing system we have. It has been the norm for far too long.

Why is this? Because myself and those who share my political views realize the currently implemented system does not adequately cover all sides of the political spectrum. It doesn’t even do justice to the two-way scale between the left and the right, let alone the whole statist-libertarian-conservative-liberal scale.

There are too many issues that cannot be truly solved by extremism. More moderation is needed on the part of our politicians, especially those running for the White House job.

Independent candidates, however, have a different flavor to them: one which does not reek of special interest association and has nothing to do with: “Is he/she a baby killer or not?”

They tend to take more moderate stances on the issues, and if not, they definitely prove to be an effervescent refresher to the monotony of Republicans and Democrats ripping each other to tatters.

Those are just a couple of reasons why I’ll be voting for Ralph Nader in the upcoming presidential election.

Yeah, that’s right. Ralph Nader is running for president.

But much to my dismay, we have, as a public body, essentially stigmatized the concept of voting for independent or third party presidential candidates. By proclaiming that I’m voting for Nader (I really hope he doesn’t drop out of the race), I’m pretty much assured that at least five people will comment on this article, only to claim that I am “wasting my vote.”

I swear, if I hear that term one more time, I will run for president and I will “waste my vote” by voting for myself!

To vote for an independent is not a waste of a vote, nor is it a “protest vote.” It is (in my case, at least) a voluntary choice to vote for a candidate who is no less politically valid than any other candidate. Just because Nader probably won’t win this upcoming election does not mean that voting for him is a waste of a vote.

In fact, the real way to waste a vote is to not vote at all.

Unfortunately, many people do indeed waste their votes by not voting. And of course, a good portion of those people fall into the category of (you guessed it) college students.

I can assume that many of my college peers can be very apathetic about politics and voting in general, and for good reason.

First off, they’re college students, and secondly, the mainstream media continuously bombards people with right-wing and left-wing propaganda during the heated debating and campaigning which defines the presidential race.

This kind of politically charged drivel is disgusting to watch, painful to listen to, and painfully obsequious in the way such advertisements promote their specific candidates.

It’s supremely likely for people to be turned off by all of this media madness, and that’s probably one of the primary reasons why only 32 percent of registered voters age 18 to 24 actually choose to complete their voting obligations, according to flyernews.com.

For those of you who fall into this category, do not lose hope. Your vote matters. Contrary to what everyone else says (well, not quite everyone else), individual votes matter.

Furthermore, there are indeed other candidates running for president besides the front-runners. Nader is only one of them.

I don’t want to sound like some sort of snooty political expert, but by choosing to vote for an independent candidate, I have a way to go the voting booth in November and actually vote for someone who aligns with my political beliefs. Besides, I won’t be mentally vomiting with disgust if my candidate loses, because I’ll know that I voted for someone whom I actually supported.

Now that that’s taken care of, all we need to do is to overhaul the whole electoral college process.