This Year's Election: A Finish Line from Hell
This Year's Election: A Finish Line from Hell
Me: "Who are you voting for?"
Common answer: "I don't know, I don't like 'either' candidate, so probably Clinton."
"...do you know there are more than two candidates?"
It's as simple and as challenging as everyone voting for who they actually want to be president, instead of assuming they have to vote like everyone else, who is just assuming how they're voting in return.
Giving in to the two-party system is a self-fulfilling prophecy that will continue as long as our vote-with-the-masses mentality continues, and it will end when the millions of people who want to vote outside of these two parties actually does so.
Scaring each other into two-party voting is what keeps it going, with the media's help of course. So many people claim they want better for our country than these two candidates, yet hardly anyone is willing to vote honestly, knowing the reality that others aren't voting honestly either.
These are no more than powerful excuses, and they continue to shape our "democracy." It might take more than one election, but nothing will change until we start changing our actions.
So if you don't like your options, then do something about it instead of following the herd.
The extraordinary problem in this particular election is that our main options have been an unprecedented embarrassment to our country. Basically, at least one of them looks awful to everyone, and that makes it even harder to vote third-party and risk the other guy winning.
Watching the debates alone had us all guzzling wine and white-knuckling our couch cushions just to make it through the hour-long cat-fight that should have been an informative and respectable event. Any issues that should have shone through were unfortunately muddled by our candidates bickering:
Donald Trump continuously interrupted his opponent while refusing to offer up any concrete information of his own, using vague adjectives that make it hard to believe he even understands his own plan of action at all. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton split her time between answering the issues at hand with a brazen smile and name-dropping her website.
These are our main presidential candidates, the two people we have deemed most worthy of representing our powerhouse of a country to the world. There is no better time to at least consider voting third-party then when so many people are still undecided mere hours before election day, not because we have strong candidates, but because our main choices seem so terrifying.
At the same time, it's harder to let go of voting with the masses when so much is at stake. I've spent more time researching for this year's ballot than every other election combined, and I am still undecided about tomorrow's election.
I finally thought I found the solution this morning with writing in Bernie Sanders for president. However, Google quickly put that idea to rest as I learned that only certain states allow whoever-you-want write-ins if you actually want your vote to count, and Ohio isn't on the list.
Either way, I strongly believe taking our political opinions to the grave does nothing to help our mutual understanding, decision-making, and growth as a united people.
I know it is technically polite to keep your vote to yourself, and that it is technically rude as f*ck to ask someone who they're voting for, but making informed political choices needs to take priority over maintaining the highest level of social courtesy possible, especially in an election as important as this one.
So whoever you choose, be responsible with your right to vote. This is the hope and freedom from which our nation was founded, and standing up for what we believe in is the best use of it we have.
Do you think we have a responsibility to stick to the two main parties, or vote for a third-party candidate? If you have an opinion, voice it below to help others at the polls tomorrow.