Regular listeners of my show have probably noticed that I’m not a big fan either candidate in the 2 major political parties.
I won’t go as far as saying they are EXACTLY the same, but I don’t believe we are being offered 2 very distinct images for a path forward for this country.
We have had conversations on this show before about the viability of ranked choice voting, and while it may seem slightly more convoluted than our current model, it definitely provides voters the opportunity to truly be heard.
Sometimes though, when you’ve grown accustomed to life operating a certain way, it’s difficult to envision other possibilities that exist.
And this is why I reached out to our new intern, Erin, for her perspective on voting for a 3rd party candidate using our current election model.
Here’s what she has to say:
As a college student who is rapidly gaining knowledge about today’s political arena, I am becoming increasingly dissatisfied with our two parties. Since learning that there are, while significantly less popular, other parties aside from our standard Democratic and Republican parties, I have loved the idea of voting for someone outside the box (hahaha). Unfortunately, voting third-party is hard; there isn’t enough serious unified support behind one third-party party candidate to make a real difference come election time.
It is easy to say in May of 2024, six months before the next presidential election, that neither of our choices are adequate and we need a viable third option, but it would take nothing short of a miracle to find such a candidate at this stage of the game. Frankly, this sucks. There ARE viable third-party candidates out there, but they either are not getting adequate airtime or coverage, or they are simply too similar to other more popular candidates. After this election, we need to work together and find a serious option for the 2028 election if we would like to see someone in office that will take the economic concerns of the American people seriously and put us first.
Personally, I do not want to vote solely on social issues, that depending on the issue, impact fractions of our population. While I believe most of these issues deserve the attention and support, I also believe that the more we focus our time and energy on said social issues, the less space there is for discussion surrounding economic issues that are facing ALL of us. But at the same time, it seems to me that one party is interested in moving backwards regarding social justice issues and education funding while the other party is able to make their entire platform about preserving said institutions.
How are we supposed to move forward as a nation when we are stuck arguing about the same four issues? Is it possible that we can all unify and stand behind a strong, viable third-party candidate who is willing to address the economic concerns that are stuck in the background? If this is what we want, we need to give third-party candidates visibility through a platform that provides them with respect, we need to hear their ideas, and most importantly, we need to hear each other out and focus on respectful dialogue (kind of like a certain show on the WHBY network about boxes or something). Someone who answered my poll left the comment “If we cannot find common ground and have civil arguments, that will be the end of us”, and I think that sums up my point perfectly.
I’m not sure that 3rd party candidate viability will take off this election; however I do believe that a very important conversation has started that will only see it’s support grow as we move further into the future.
We had a fantastic conversation about this during the show today.
To listen to everything that was said, click the player at the top of the article and jump to 58 minutes into the episode.
[Spreaker: Outside the Box]
