Third Party Candidates: Gary Johnson / Jill Stein

San Francisco, 10/30/2016 English German

Edition # 117
San Francisco, 10/30/2016

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Third Party Candidates: Gary Johnson / Jill Stein

Figure [1]: Liberal Gary Johnson is running in the presidential race alongside Clinton and Trump. Photo: Gage Skidmore

Angelika It's commonly known that there's a two party system in American politics. There's Democrats, currently represented by Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump, running for the Republican party. But candidates of both partes are polling at an all time low in public opinion.

Many voters who have been supporting Republicans for many years, regardless of who was running at the time, cannot get themselves to vote for Donald Trump, but don't want to see Hillary Clinton move to the White House either. You can imagine that this is quite a dilemma. On the other hand, there's many Democrats who dislike Hillary Clinton, but would under no circumstances vote for Donald Trump. What to do? These voters can choose between either staying home, to forfeit their voting rights, or give their vote to one of the third party candidates Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, neither of whom has any chance of winning the presidency. Also, votes for these candidates decrease the number of votes for the mainstream candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, so third party voters can dramatically influence the outcome of the election. In the end, it's a form of protest to vote for a third party candidate in the United States.

Gary Johnson used to be republican governor of the state of New Mexico, but now decided to run as a Libertarian. He wants to get rid of income tax and Obamacare, is aiming for a balanced budget and reducing the influence of government. He is also opposed to both U.S. military in foreign countries and regulating the Internet.

Jill Stein, who is a doctor, running for the Green Party, focuses on environmental topics: renewable energy, build out of public transportation.

As I've said before, none of these alternative candidates will even have the tiniest chance of winning, but both remind me of the debacle with Ralph Nader back in 2000, when, in all likelihood, Nader's campaign as an outsider cost Al Gore the election. Nader received critical votes in Florida needed by Gore, propelling the republican George W. Bush into office.