As it stands, our choices for president are either going to be two demagogues, people who sway the populace with idealistic jargon, or a demagogue and someone who has shown herself to be utterly incapable of professional leadership positions.
Regardless of who our two choices will be, it must be stated that we do not only have two choices.
It is too easy to scoff at the idea of a third party. People say inane things like “you’ll waste your vote” or “a vote for a third party is a vote for the dominating party.”
Neither of these ideas is true. For one thing, a vote for a third party is simply a vote for a third party. Secondly, importantly, if every person who says that they’d be wasting their vote on a third party were to actually vote for the third party, then that third party would surely win.
And we need a third party to win. We need to overcome the mentality that we have to choose between the lesser of two evils. We need to overcome the idea that we must vote for evil at all.
We need to choose the good.
And good is available. I’ll spend my next column advertising for the Libertarian Party and Gary Johnson, so I won’t do that here.
My point here is to make it clear that there are other options, and it’s about time we use them.
Nor should the idea that the presidency is the only office distract us from the other persons we are able to vote for this election. Several seats in Congress, both in the House of Representatives and the Senate, are up for election. Not only are there fresh faces in the two big parties available for election, but there are also third party options there as well.
Congressional elections might just be more important than the presidency this election. No matter who is elected into the chief executive position, they will not be able to get much accomplished if there is resistance in Congress.
If you don’t want Trump building his wall, then let’s get more people in Congress to oppose him.
If you don’t want Sanders running wild with the budget, then let’s get more people in Congress to oppose him.
And so on.
More importantly, as we should have all learned in our first twelve years of schooling, the laws we follow are created in the legislature. The president has the power to veto these laws, of course, but there is still a loophole that the legislature can override a veto with another vote.
Do you know where the power is in our government? It is not with the president.
His or her job will ultimately be to merely enforce laws signed into existence. But the real power lands in the lap of those sitting in Congress. They have the power to change things in our country. They have the power to make things happen.
As much as I urge you to consider voting for a third party to keep fascist demagogues from the two dominating parties out of office, I also urge you to put your vote into the actual power house of our government.
When you enter the polling booth this year, or when you fill out your absentee ballot, keep in mind the other choices you have to make.
We’re not just electing a president this year. We’re electing the entire government.
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