During an election season in which the two primary candidates have reached a pinnacle of discontent among the public, is there any viable alternative?
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A Gallup poll conducted in 2014 indicates that a majority of Americans (58%) believe that a third political party is needed. This is due to how difficult it can be to vote for a candidate who runs on a platform that one actually believes in, rather than being forced to accept several undesirable policies or broad generalizations. The poll also reveals that these opinions about a third party have been the majority since 2007.
As of early October, 2016, about a month away from November 8, this is how the presidential race stands in terms of the general election: Clinton - 44%, Trump - 41%, Johnson - 7%, Stein - 2%.
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, has had fluctuating ratings between 5% and 13% during the past few months, but has yet to surpass 15%, which is the cutoff for being allowed to participate in the nationally televised debates. This is obviously a subject of contention among his campaign, as he has released a #letgarydebate hashtag on social media and an online petition which has gathered approximately 1.07 million signatures.
He and his running mate, Bill Weld, both of whom are former two-term Republican governors, have stated that the only thing holding them back was the fact that they didn't have enough exposure. A Huffington Post article shows that between 60-70% of voters have not heard of Johnson.
For those who are not sure what the Libertarian party stands for, here is a short breakdown: (Just to be clear, this principles are not necessarily the same as the platform Johnson is running on, but they are similar.)
Their website's initial statement sounds strikingly like Nietzsche (on a very basic level).
As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.
The site goes on to mention several key areas of life, economics, and government that are addressed within their system.
Personal liberty: Individuals should be able to make decisions for themselves and likewise should be held responsible to these decisions. This applies to situations such as privacy, sexual orientation, abortion, and parental rights, all of which are at the discretion of the individual.
Economic liberty: The goal is to promote a free and competitive market. The government's only role should be to protect property rights and free trade. Redistributing wealth or any other attempts to manage trade is not acceptable. The party calls for the repeal of the income tax and the dismantling of the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to this, education, healthcare, and retirement services should all be in the hands of the free market. This means no more mandatory health care, Social Security, etc.
Securing liberty:
The protection of individual rights is the only proper purpose of government.
Libertarians seek to use the military and intelligence only to protect the country against aggression, but not to get involved with other foreign issues and act as the world's policeman. Current policies of foreign intervention would be abandoned, drastically reducing military spending. Free trade with other nations would be encouraged, as would a more representative style of government.
To conclude: Although he has made a huge leap from his standings in the 2012 election, Gary Johnson does not have much of a chance to win in 2016. However, Americans have a great chance to get exposed to the possibility of more than just a two-party election. The country can begin to move towards choosing a candidate whose beliefs match their own, which is a much needed improvement to the current system — a system which has led to major trust issues.
