It’s Time to Stop Maligning Third-Party Voters
Let me start by making it clear I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I am deeply cynical about both major parties, and I think they do little to promote real democracy in America. I agree with Professor Lawrence Lessig’s assessment that our elections are essentially a sham, in which we are given choices of candidates who have been pre-selected by an oligarchic elite. In voting for Democrats and Republicans, we do nothing to challenge this elite.
A large proportion of the American electorate has been browbeaten into accepting the notion that we will be given the choice between two evils every election cycle, and it is our civic duty to choose the lesser of two evils. In this election, a staggering 55% of Trump supporters and 50% of Clinton supporters are voting against the other candidate, not for their own candidate. Given those statistics, I think it is our civic duty to not allow this system to continue, where millions of people are voting out of fear and distaste of some supposed worse evil.
It is important for people admonishing third-party voters to realize what these numbers indicate. Just because you see someone as a lesser evil does not mean everyone else sees it that way. 55% of Trump supporters see Trump as the lesser evil, and 50% of Clinton supporters see Clinton as the lesser evil. What about third-party voters? I, personally, think it is an act of prognostication to say with any certainty who is the lesser evil between a neoliberal candidate with a proven track record of corruption, deception, racism, and warmongering and a neofascist candidate who is an egomaniacal, bloviating, bigoted, misogynistic embarrassment to our nation. Not only do I not see a clear and obvious case for calling one a lesser evil, but, more importantly, I don’t see a person in either candidate to whom I can give my vote.
My refusal to vote for either of these abhorrent candidates stems not only from my outright unwillingness to endorse the oppression, murder, international state terror, and corruption for which they both stand, but also my refusal to endorse the two-party system that has brought us these candidates. Both candidates are the exact candidates that the two parties have been building toward. The Republicans have long been engaged in religious pandering, catering to the corporate elite, mockery, and outright racism. The entire Southern Strategy is founded on making racist appeals to white voters.
On the other hand, the Democrats have embraced neoliberalism, have sold out their voters to the same corporate elite, have given in to warmongering and American imperialism, have embraced institutions that reinforce structural racism (private prisons, War on Drugs, etc.), and have willingly shifted the conversation further and further to the right. Much as the Southern Strategy of the Republicans panders to racists, the Democrats pander to the progressive left, promising reform and inclusion, but making sure that all the goods are delivered on time and in abudnance to Wall Street— the so-called Northern Strategy.
A vote for Clinton or Trump in 2016 is a vote to perpetuate this system. Make no mistake about it. A vote for someone else is a vote to upend this system. I understand that it is unreasonable to expect any candidate but Clinton or Trump to win this election, and I am sure other third-party voters also understand that. Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, whoever that guy that Dick Cheney is backing to win in Utah, and all the write-ins for Bernie Sanders and anyone else have microscopically small chances to win. While we would certainly like our candidates to win, we also realize that the world is dynamic, that this will not be the last election in the United States. Things change, but change does not happen through inertia, and you cannot direct change by voting for stagnation. Our votes today are counted and echo through history to future generations who see that there have always been people who reject this corrupt system and see that it is OK to vote third-party. My vote for change is a vote to encourage other voters today and tomorrow to vote for what they believe, to vote according to their principles, and not to vote out of fear of the boogeyman that is the “other” major party’s candidate.
I am not just an idealist for thinking this way. Independent voters are on the rise, and to accelerate this obliteration of the Republican and Democratic parties, we must continue to vote them into obsolescence. And it is happening: the disillusionment with the two-party system has reached a high water mark. People will tell you this doesn’t matter, that the notion of an independent voter is a myth, that many independent voters still lean left or lean right, or vote straight party tickets. Some media organizations have gone as far as to call “true centrists” the only real independents. Obviously, these are all logical fallacies of the No True Scotsman variety and do not matter. These people are all taking a stand against two-party corruption by way of their affiliation, and that, in my mind, is a step in the right direction, regardless of how they end up voting.
When you register third-party or Independent and when you vote third-party or Independent, because you believe those candidates represent you the best, you are doing your civic duty and standing up against the tyranny of oligarchy. You are the one taking the moral high ground, not settling for the so-called lesser of two evils. You are on the right side of history, regardless of the outcome of one election, because you had the courage to stand up for what is right. You recognize that you cannot change the corrupt system by continually voting for the proponents of strengthening that system or using it for their own self-interest, and that is all you ever get from the Democratic or Republican Parties.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is telling you this for one of three reasons. The first, most noble, yet naive, reason is that they really believe their favorite major party candidate is the best candidate. Fine. They are entitled to their opinion, but I am sure all of us voting third-party or considering a third-party vote do not agree with that. After all, we did see earlier that 55% of Republicans are voting anti-Democrat and 50% of Democrats are voting anti-Republican. They have their reasons and we have ours, and you, of course, may intelligently debate them if you so choose.
The second reason they tell you to vote for a major party candidate is that they are genuinely afraid of one of the two candidates and think you should be, too. They buy into the notion that the degree of evil which separates the lesser and greater of the two evils of the major party candidates is so significant that it cannot be ignored and it cannot be set aside for principles or to participate in a movement that changes the face of the electorate. They admonish that you would be “wasting your vote” if you voted otherwise. Again, they are entitled to their opinion, but their fears are not my fears, and I will not be ruled by their fears. I have my own belief about what the greatest evil threatening us is, and that evil is the morally-bankrupt political system the corrupt major parties have brought us. Anything we do to perpetuate it is an unethical, cowardly act, and, therefore, I think voting for a Democrat or Republican would be a waste of my vote.
The third reason is the most insidious, and it is that they benefit from the corrupt system and want you to keep feeding into it. They will make up any number of lies, use all sorts of scare tactics, engage in an ocean of logical fallacies, and make wholly unscientific claims to get you to vote the way they want you to vote. This is propaganda. Every election ad is propaganda. Every smear against another candidate is propaganda, and every argument in favor of continuing to prop up the same, outmoded, corrupt system that is a blight not just on America, but on the entire planet, is propaganda. It is up to you whether you wish to give any of it credence, but remember that it is designed to influence you.
A common tactic employed by those who use the last method is to blame you for the outcome of an election if you do not vote the way they want you to, as though it is your responsibility to vote for their terrible candidate. They will tell you the third-party candidate is a spoiler and risks giving the election to the candidate you presumably hate the most. This is just victim blaming.
Consider the case of a man who wears a Boston Red Sox hat to a New York Yankees game and gets savaged by some drunken Yankees fans. Who is the villain here? Should we criminalize the man who got beaten for showing his support for the opposing team? Maybe it is just “common sense” he should not wear a Red Sox hat to Yankee Stadium, but is he the bad guy or are the bad guys the people who committed the assault? In America, can’t you wear whatever hat you want wherever hats are allowed?
Consider the case of a woman who wears a revealing outfit to a party and is sexually assaulted by a man. Is it not unjust to blame the woman for wearing that outfit? Is it not her right to wear whatever she wants? Shouldn’t the criminal who gets prosecuted and penalized here be the man who actually did the crime?
We, the voters, are under attack. We are the victims of a corrupt two-party system. Is it our fault if we do not want to vote for a candidate that is terrible? Is the responsibility not on those candidates to be someone we find worth our vote? Is the responsibility not on the parties themselves to deliver us candidates who represent us, and not just an elite oligarchy, if they want our votes? Should we not hold them accountable for all their crimes against humanity, their perpetration of injustice, misogyny, and racism, and their utter selling out of all our wealth to the elite? Is it not their fault for failing to earn our vote? Why should we, the attacked, be responsible for the immorality of our attackers?
Do not blame me for voting however I want in 2016, or for not voting at all. Blame the parties and their candidates for not being someone for whom I can vote. I will grant my vote and my voice only to a candidate who deserves it. Someone who has principles, who represents benevolence and compassion. I will not allow my vote to be used to endorse war, injustice or oppression. Until your candidate of choice can meet my criteria, I’m not with him and I’m not with her, so please stop telling me how to vote.
