Would you like rice and beans? Or beans and rice?
That’s what the election choice feels like to many of us this year. You can vote for the lesser of two evils, or stay home on election day.
Or you can refuse to be satisfied with what’s being served up by the establishment.
We do have other choices in the Green Party, the Justice Party, and the Libertarian Party. My goal is to profile each of these choices in my next three blog entries. No, barring a miracle, these candidates won’t win. But there are still valid reasons to cast your vote their way:
1) It sends a message to whichever corporate-owned party wins. The days of American apathy are over. Our legislators need to understand they aren’t entitled to their job. If they don’t represent our views, they will be voted out.
2) It brings us closer to the day of a serious third party contender. Each year, more people vote third party. We are one or two election cycles from being a serious contender. A strong showing this year could mean that 2016 will see at least three serious candidates.
3) The third parties, although very distinct, have some similar messages which are entirely absent from the Republican and Democratic discourse. And these messages (e.g., ending the wars, civil liberties) are vital to our survival as we know it.
4) It will help you sleep at night. If you disapprove of both Romney and Obama, there’s no need to grin and bear it. Vote for someone you do want!
You might be surprised when you see how different the third party platforms are from the establishment’s picks!
Jill Stein, Green Party candidate profile
I finally had a chance to watch the third-party debate. What I expected from these parties–Green, Justice, Constitution, and Libertarian was serious debate on the issues facing our country. What I got from this 90 minutes discussion sounded a lot like the Democrat and Republican debates–a lot of promises but no specifics. With both houses of Congress controlled by the majority parties, how would the Green, Justice, Constitution, and Libertarian presidential candidates work across this truly divided government to achieve their pet projects–removing money from government, legalizing weed, going to a flat tax, repealing the Patriot Act, and shrinking the size of government, and term limits. Many of these issues are currently being debated by members of the majority parties. I guess, I was hoping or waiting to hear some new or radical idea that would make me feel that these third-party candidates were on the vanguard of political thought and action. One of the topics that I am surprised that did not come up but to me is the true test of the viability for these parties is whether or not they can get on all 50 states’ ballots to finally have a somewhat equal voice at the table. This debate was so sort of putting the horse before the cart. If they can work with the powers that be that control the ballot process, than it may be possible for them to tackle some of the other issues that were addressed during this discussion which has deeper and more entrenched monied interest than simply ballot box access.
Still, at the end of the day, I recognize the courage necessary to
stand before the American people with only your convinction and a dream for pseudo change and for that I salute these individuals.
The 3rd party debate addressed issues that never came up between Obama and Romney: term limits, the need for a third party (obviously), and a reduced overseas presence. On other issues there’s no difference between them, like their joint desire to allow illegals a path to citizenship or prevent legalized weed.
I agree the first concern is ballot (and debate) access. The GOP and the Dems could never bear to compromise with each other, but maybe they would work with a Libertarian or a Justice commander-in-chief.
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