Pros: Voting
Tesla Bethel
Lantern Staff
The most common excuse I hear as to why many in our generation decide not to vote is “because it doesn’t matter.” The corruption of the government by large corporations, Electoral College, voter fraud, and rigged primaries have many possible voters feeling like it’s a useless waste of time.
However, that is exactly why you should vote in this presidential election.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people,” Alan Moore, V for Vendetta.
That’s the whole point of a democracy, the government is supposed to listen to its people, and according to Statistic Brain, when 42.5 percent of all people eligible to vote don’t, the government and large corporations think they can get away with more. They think we are uneducated or uninformed.
Many voters say they don’t want to vote this election because of the poor choices between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. However, there are two other candidates that you should consider: Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. Now many say they don’t have a chance in this upcoming election because they are not a part of the two large party demographic. Johnson is a former republican running for the Libertarian Party. Stein, a member of the Green Party, whose political views are incredibly similar to that of Bernie Sander’s, even plans on doing away with the electoral college and focusing on the popular vote, the vote of the people.
They are both polling quite low, but if people don’t settle and vote for Clinton or Trump just because one has a higher probability of beating the other. Take a chance on a third party candidate: Add that with the 42.5 percent of people who don’t vote and the odds would switch in favor of those third party candidates.
You might not think it matters now, but the laws made by a president can have repercussions in the long run. You might not realize it now, but decades later when people are complaining about how bad the Kansas education system is, just remember that you didn’t vote when Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback was re-elected. Maybe you think Sen. Bernie Sanders is still the best fit, you can always write him in on the ballet. I hope to see a larger voting turn out of our generation. Let’s form a better future for those who will come after us.
Cons: Voting
Matt Cooper
Managing Editor
If you plan to show up to your local courthouse on Tuesday, Nov. 8 and vote for a third party candidate for president, you may be putting the future of the United States in jeopardy.
Let me be clear.
This year the American populace faces a great danger in the upcoming election. The Republican and Democratic parties have both fractured which has resulted in a political schism wherein the middle class no longer has a single candidate that stands as voice of reason.
After Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was cast out of the campaign trail this past spring and the GOP reluctantly allowed businessman Donald Trump to become its red, white and blue blooded place holder, the American people have been left between voting for a self described progressive in Hillary Clinton (D) and a social conservative of the highest and most offensive order in Trump (R).
Thus, new and old voters alike are now faced with the choice between one candidate who upon little scrutiny would appear to be a carbon copy of the sitting president and a man who advocates erecting a border wall along the Rio Grande River.
This being marred between a rock and a hard place has led to a new found appeal of the Libertarian and Green parties.
And if one takes a moment to remember the last time a third party candidate stood any chance in a presidential election, the frightening specter of Ralph Nader’s bid for the presidency in 2000 comes to mind.
In 2000, Nader won enough votes in the state of Florida and around the country to enable former President George W. Bush to take the election without the benefit of having won the popular vote. Nader was able to do so drawing voters away from Al Gore.
We are faced with a similar dilemma this year.
Two candidates stand to be the interrupters whom could potentially pave the way for Trump to move into the White House and become the commander and chief.
Both Jill Stein (G-Mass.) and Gary Johnson (L-NM.) both stand to drain votes away from Trump and Clinton. This is concerning because in states where there are a large amounts of third party voters, a significant amount of votes could be detracted from either of the major parties.
If enough traditional democrats vote for either Stein or Johnson, Trump may unfortunately stand a chance.
The scenario could play out one of two ways: 1) Johnson and Stein poll high enough and appeal to significant percentage of potential republican voters, thus resulting in a landslide victory for Clinton. 2) Enough disaffected democrats cast their votes for Johnson or Stein, subtracting a large enough chunk of Clinton’s voter pool and Trump wins the election in a close knit race.
In the second scenario, a non-politician, civilian, cultural xenophobe, blatant racist and narcissist would come to hold the same office as Kennedy and Lincoln did before him.
This cannot be allowed to happen.
So we have a contradiction.
We must not abstain from voting yet allowing our country to be led by a caricature of ignorance like Trump seems just as damaging.
The reality for me is simple. If you plan to go to the ballot box and support a third party candidate, you are wasting your vote; you might also be ushering in the most unworthy candidate the United States has ever seen in Trump.
