If you’re neither Democrat nor Republican, vote Third Party

Fed up with the corruption and lack of ideal candidates in this election? Maybe you should consider voting third party.

As someone who does not align very well politically with the presumed nominees, I have considered voting for the third, but not as popular option. There are multiple types of third parties in the United States. The three most influential choices are The Libertarian Party, The Green Party, and non-party affiliated independents.

The Libertarian Party

They focus on fiscal conservatism. Fiscal conservatism is a policy of low taxes and small government. Libertarians believe people are capable of making their own financial decisions without the interference of the big government. You might be thinking… “isn’t that what Republicans think?” Well, yes and no.

As far as social issues such as gay marriage and marijuana legalization go, Libertarians think individuals can make their own decisions about whom they marry and what they put in their bodies. Democrats tend to think this way as well, so socially these two parties essentially occupy the same ideological space. Some think that the Libertarian Party embodies the Goldilocks Principle (most people don’t align perfectly with either party, and the Libertarian Party is “just right”). The presumptive nominee of the Libertarian Party is Gary Johnson, who polls at around 10 percent nationally at the moment.

The Green Party

They define themselves by using ecological sustainability as a basis (hence the name Green). People in The Green Party like feminist activism and working to increase the health of the nation’s people. Their platform includes pillars such as socialism, ecological sustainability, and feminism. The idea of grassroots democracy and community involvement in everything from economics to politics is what the Green Party is about. Members of this party are very peaceful and promote nonviolent solutions. Community is a key part in their beliefs and they love to tout their “progressiveness”. The presumptive nominee of the Green Party for President is Dr Jill Stein who firmly believes in protecting the environment and improving people’s health.

Pure independents

A rare breed in American politics. These people follow no party ideology and have no people in their party establishment to guide their views. This makes it increasingly difficult to get elected because a great deal of the money needed to run a political campaign comes from the political parties themselves.

Brandon Hudock is the only independent running for The United States Senate. I spoke with his staffer, Gregory Dornseif, and he had stated that the biggest issue is getting press coverage, financing, and signatures.

Hudock has the extraordinary challenge of needing 66,000 signatures to get on the ballot before August 1st for the November election. In comparison, a registered Republican or Democrat only needs 2,000: that’s just the way the fixed system works, I guess.

“The rules are written to make it so that independents fail,” Dornseif told me with a sigh.

After this, though, Dornseif said with hope, “It’s an uphill battle, but we have to fight the good fight, the more people that know about us, the better we will do.”

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So you think that Trump is a joke and Hillary is untrustworthy? Do not worry, because there are other options and the only thing you have to do is VOTE. People may think that a third party vote is wasted, but if we all wasted our vote, then we would never elect a Republican or a Democrat again.