This year is arguably the most toxic election in history. Ok. I am 26 years old, so it is the most toxic case that I could possibly remember.
When I first began voting, I was constantly bummed when a candidate I voted for lost the election. It felt as if my vote did not matter when the candidate I wanted did not get their chance in the office.
This year, I took a completely different approach.
In the Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump battle of 2016, I could not possibly see a candidate that represented me. Living on a military base, I couldn’t possibly see how Hillary Clinton represented the community I have grown to be part of. As a woman, I could not imagine a world in which Donald Trump spoke for me and my country. The rest of the country was voting for what they considered to be the lesser of two evils. I wasn’t sure I could do that either.
Before I was in 5th grade, when George Bush ran against Al Gore in the year 2000, I was completely oblivious to any other option than Democratic or Republican. In a mock election in my elementary school, a kid in my class told me he was voting for Ralph Nader.
A third option? WHAT?
In that fifth grade election, I voted for George W. Bush. In the actual election, there was great discrepancy between the popular vote and electoral vote. George Bush won in 2000, despite only having 47% of the popular vote to Al Gore’s 48%. Ralph Nader, with an honorable mention here, received a little under 3% of the popular vote. I hadn’t thought much about that election until this year.
That 3% from the Green Party, a third option in the 2000 election, took away if only slightly from the Democratic and Republican votes. In that year, it was merely an annoyance, a small player in a greater game. But what if it wasn’t that way anymore? What if, instead of voting against a party or a candidate, we went back to voting for a candidate? I understand that in this election some people are actually backing a candidate, but social media newsfeeds do not lie. A good chunk of my pages are “Don’t Vote for Trump!” or “Hillary is crooked!” But I see less and less about why people are actually endorsing their candidate.
What if this were no longer the way things were. What if we ALL were given the options that represented us, not the choices of our political parties and the rich and famous?
This election, I did not vote for Clinton OR Trump. Not because I figured that a third candidate has a chance, hell no, but because I needed to vote with my conscience. I have heard time and time again that, “A vote for a third party is a vote for Clinton!” or, “A vote for a third party is a vote for Trump!” But to me, a vote for a third party is a vote for the future. If a third party gets 5% instead of 3% this year, and 10% instead of 5% in 2020… perhaps we can change the course of the government. Perhaps, by voting for a third party candidate, we can keep the choices “for the people” not just “for the rich people who direct campaign funding and therefore choose who are our final choices every four years.” So Gary Johnson or Jill Stein probably will not win today. Yes, no matter what happens, Donald Trump OR Hillary Clinton, this country is in for a rough four years. However, I am not here in this country for simply the next four years. I am here for the long haul. It might not pay off in 2016 or 2020 but maybe, someday, we will be a country of choices and opportunities again, a country of the people, a country where anything is possible, regardless of email inbox or celebrity status.