At this point, it is no secret to anyone in the world that the United States is in a bit of political turmoil. The Republican Party is imploding under the nomination of a near fascist in Donald Drumpf and the Democrats are still trying to unify their party amid even more scandals around someone a large number of Americans believe is fundamentally dishonest (P.S. here is a link to a Google Chrome plug in that makes his last name "Drumpf", as John Oliver so eloquently stated it should be, anywhere it appears on the internet. You're welcome). Then, with all of that going on, there are still two third party candidates fighting for our votes, a Libertarian and a Green Party candidate. Combine this ridiculous presidential race with the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the last 8-10 years of economic turmoil, the war and terrorism plaguing the world, the changing of the global climate, and so many other things, and our world is really in a crazy place right now. I honestly cannot tell you what the coming years and decades will bring us at all, but what I can tell you is that we have an opportunity affect their direction and possibly make some change.

I am of course talking about the presidential election that is upon us. Since he declared last May, I have been a passionate Bernie Sanders supporter. I believed in Bernie then and I do to this day. I believed in his message. I believe in the ideals he stands for and I believe in the millions of people who fought tooth and nail to see his dreams and ours become reality. I wrote an article a while back, right before he officially dropped out of the race, talking about Bernie's legacy and the future of his Political Revolution, which you can find here. The essence of that article was that Bernie Sanders and the Political Revolution he began are only just getting started, and that it is the responsibility, the duty, of his followers to pick up the mantle and continue the fight. I love Bernie Sanders, the hope he embodies and inspires, and I always will. However, the fact of the matter is that he is no longer running and has endorsed another candidate, as we all know.

Now this puts me and my fellow Bernie supporters in a very tough position. Bernie has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. He did so after a long and difficult primary where he and Hillary attacked one another over a number of issues. A primary campaign that, among many things, destroyed a large amount of trust in Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate and as a person. Despite that, she is the Democratic nominee. Opposite Hillary we have of course Donald Drumpf under the Republican ticket, but I won't be talking about him here because talking about him validates him. Other than those two, we have Gary Johnson with the Libertarians and Jill Stein with the Green Party, both third party candidates.

As a hardcore Bernie Supporter, it is very true that my ideals, beliefs, and policy direction align more closely with those of Jill Stein than with anyone else. If I were to vote for the candidate that best represented me as a human being and the things I want to see accomplished by our country and by people, I would go with Jill Stein. If you don't know about Jill Stein, check out her website. She believes in implementing a Green New Deal to recreate our energy system, building a just economy, education and health care as rights, and many other things which I truly love and believe in. There is one problem with Jill Stein though, one very big problem. She is a third party candidate.

As a third party candidate, Jill stein has no chance to win the presidency and this is why. The reason she is called a third party candidate and not just a candidate is because we live under a two party system. The way our electoral and governmental systems are designed, a two party system is completely inevitable. To win the election, a candidate needs a majority of electoral college votes and to get this majority, two opposing parties are naturally formed to compete for it. The same goes for congressional, state, and local elections where the winner of popular votes takes all and gets the seat. There are other ways to run a government and elect officials, search "European Parliamentary System" on Google for just one example. Because of our two party system, and the simple fact that many people do not agree with the ideas of third party candidates like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson when compared with the candidates of those two major parties, it is nearly impossible for someone from the two main parties to not be elected.

So we can vote for Jill Stein, but we must realize that, in doing this, we have the potential to "Nader" this election. By that I mean that we could turn the 2016 election into a repeat of the 2000 election, where Ralph Nader, as a third party candidate with the Green Party, cost John Kerry the election and put George Bush in Office. Except this time it isn't George Bush, it's Donald Drumpf...That is a scary thought to me. Or we can vote for Hillary and perhaps compromise our ideals and morals. I really don't know what to do when it comes to the presidential election to be honest, but there is still time to figure it out. Vote my beliefs and potentially help elect a dictator or vote for someone I do not truly believe in or even trust.

What I do know is this, we all must vote. If we do not vote for one of the two major party candidates, as Bernie supporters, we betray him. Bernie's political revolution was about a lot of things, but a key among them was getting people involved in the political process again. It is also our duty as citizens of a "democracy" to vote, and if the system truly is rigged against what we as people want, the only way to prove that is to vote and show our votes do not matter. On top of all of that, there are still incredibly important state and local elections coming up and in many cases those are more important than the presidential race. They can affect our everyday lives immensely. Gay marriage was only legalized federally after it had been legalized in dozens of states after all. So please, whatever you do and whoever you vote for, I don't care, just vote! It is your duty, your responsibility, and the only way we get to live in a democracy.