With the mess that is Donald Trump, and the controversy that surrounds Hillary Clinton, (both of which could merit their own substantial articles) you may feel you can't vote for either of them. For many, the rallying cry has been Gary Johnson. The third party, libertarian, former governor of New Mexico, has been many people’s hope of escape from a bipartisan, corrupt, and stayed political field. And up until recently, he has proven quite a fit alternative. However, recently Gary Johnson has demonstrated some less than spectacular knowledge as of late. Of course we would expect a lifetime politician like Clinton to have more knowledge than Johnson. But when an inexperienced individual like Trump demonstrates more active knowledge than you, you aren't fit for presidency.

When asked about his stance on Aleppo, Gary Johnson responded by asking what that was. Now for those of us who aren't expected to know what Aleppo is, I'll give a brief explanation. Aleppo is a region in Syria. It is a cultural epicenter and last polled at around 2 million people. Now for you and me, (unless you happen to running for office) Aleppo isn't a large concern in our day to day lives. However, for a politician that should probably merit at least a passing thought. This area is a topic of heated debate, as the United States has been discussing whether or not to accept Syrian refugees. We know, at least to an extent, the two major nominees’ stances on this. Clinton is all for granting them refuge, whereas Trump started out by calling for a full stop of all Muslim movement into the country, and progressed to the infamous skittles statement. So the fact that Johnson had no idea about this topic should show that he is not ready to act as president.

Not to demonstrate any additional knowledge, Johnson was asked by Chris Matthews from MSNBC to name a political leader he admired. In an attempt to cover his slip up, he said he was having an Allepo moment with regards to the former president of Mexico. Matthews prompted him on by telling him the rest of the world was still on the plate. Unfortunately, this did not help as a few moments of awkward silence passed until Johnson’s running mate Bill Weld coughed up the last name of Vicente Fox. Now this should worry everyone. As a political leader of any rank, some amount of foreign knowledge is absolutely required. We know Clinton would know because she has functioned as Secretary of State. With Trump we’ve heard frequent statements of support for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s "not so democratically" elected President.

If you feel compelled to see more situations like this, you may also want to look up Johnson’s statements regarding climate change, the importance of his performance in the debates, or literally any of his defense policies, and you will find that he is grossly underprepared. One must wonder if he is even taking his candidacy seriously. Now before closing I’d like to specify what I mean by writing this article. I don't mean to say that a vote for a Johnson is a wasted vote. Literally the only wasted vote in an uncast one. Rather, I intend to point out that maybe Gary Johnson isn't the third party savior some are making him out to be but rather, an underprepared, unaware, unqualified candidate.