My birthday is November sixth. This date is insignificant to a majority of the population unless your birthday is also on this day. However, two days after my birthday is a very special day that only happens every four years, and of course I’m talking about the United States presidential election.
This year our presidential nominee for the Republican Party is Donald Trump, an egotistical bigoted demagogue, and for the Democrat Party is Hillary Clinton, an untrustworthy warmonger. However what most people don't know is there are other options for president, for example: Gary Johnson for the Libertarian party and Jill Stein for the Green Party. Both Johnson and Stein oppose wars and more importantly oppose drone strikes.
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Both Clinton and Trump are on the exact opposite side of that coin, Trump has called for us to "take out their families" while talking about terrorists. Clinton wants to intensify the coalition air campaign against ISIS fighters, leaders, and infrastructure, but more often than not those attacks on the infrastructure results in the loss of innocent life. In July of this year, we killed 85 Syrian civilians during a wedding in a drone strike, including women and children.
If elected as President, either Trump or Clinton plan on continuing if not increasing these attacks, and they plan on continuing the drone strikes. Trump would have done that strike intentionally, while Clinton would continue to say that this was an accident, just like how it is being said it is right now. Both Stein and Johnson oppose these strikes and want to stop them all together. This enough for me to consider voting for them.
The thing is, these accidents happen all too often, civilian casualties are becoming more and more common in other countries, especially ones that could have potential ISIS soldiers. I'm often hearing more about the victims of the accidental drone strikes, instead of their intended ISIS targets. A drone can't tell the difference between a wedding and ISIS training.
This fact is terrifying, because let's face it, someone thousands of miles away decides that the target is ISIS or civilians. There is a fifty percent chance they are ISIS and a fifty percent chance they are civilians. Someone decides if it was a training or a wedding, and we shouldn't be deciding who lives and who dies in these situations. Imagine if any country did that to the United States. We would go to war in a heartbeat, so what gives us the right to decide who lives and who dies in their country?
I hear all too often that a vote for Johnson is a vote for Trump, and a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump, or vice versa with Clinton, or that voting for third party is throwing away your vote. I completely disagree, if you cannot put your values into your vote, then why are you voting? When you vote, you are saying "this person will best represent me." If we continue down the unending rabbit hole of the lesser of two evils, we always end up with evil. It's time to stop with the lesser of two evils, and vote for the good.
