We have heard the arguments way too many times. We have screamed over dinner tables and have laughed at people’s opinions on twitter. We have heard this question so many times in the last few months:

“Who are you going to vote for?”

Being a double major with International Business and Political Science, a lot of people seem to be interested in what I have to say about the election.

I get a lot of mixed reactions when I say:

“Gary Johnson.”

…

I usually hear arguments about how voting for a third party candidate is a “wasted vote” that will just give advantage towards Clinton/Trump, depending on who’s asking you. I hear about Johnson’s mistake about not knowing what Aleppo was and how he’s alright with abortion and being a christian meant that wasn’t alright.

Here is what I have to say to those people:

1. Voting for someone who you support is better than just voting in opposition towards who you are against.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I dislike Donald Trump. However, I also don’t like Hillary, at all. I refuse to vote for her just because she has a better shot at winning the presidency and isn’t Donald Trump. I’m a libertarian, I agree with a lot of stances that Johnson stands on.

2. Voting for a third party candidate is NOT a wasted vote.

This goes along with my first point. If you agree with someone’s views, vote for that person. Whether it’s the green or tea party, or some abstract party that no one knows about, vote for who you agree with. Spread the word about their ideas and their solutions. In Foundations of Political Science one of the first lessons that you learn is that your single vote isn’t really significant, and that is true whether you are voting for Clinton, Trump, or Johnson.

3. The Aleppo Mix-up

Johnson has been campaigning for a while. He has memorized a lot of facts regarding to domestic and foreign policy. I’m pretty sure a lot of Americans didn’t know the city of Aleppo either considering how many tend to stay indifferent on the issue. Also...has everyone forgotten that Trump said it was right to “punish the women who have abortions” or that Hillary stated for years that she was against gay marriage and when someone asked her why she changed her views she openly lied and started verbally attacking the interviewer saying that she was always for gay marriage? At least Johnson was honest about not knowing about the city and didn’t try to lie his way out of it. Candidates are human too.

I like Gary Johnson because I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. I don’t agree with everything the libertarian party stands for, but I have a strong set of beliefs that don’t agree with either dominant parties that rule currently. I think that this election can possibly be the rise of the libertarian party in future elections and shows the deterioration within the GOP. This election has given the American people lots to talk about and hope that there’s a realization that we need to be socially aware of the options we have for executive leadership of the country.