Call me jaded, or disheartened, about this year’s Presidential election. That’s fine. Over the last several weeks of finding and reading truly unbiased and factual information on the Internet from sources that boast their verifiable pedigree, my eyes and mind have been opened more than in my entire life since I turned 18. My parents, almost polar opposites from me, are focused on the “standard” issues that have been discussed on the election campaigns for more than three decades. Heck, my Mom is voting for Clinton because she wants to be part of “history” in helping the first woman ascend to President of the United States. It is a very narrow point of view and indicative of a tragically closed mind. I get it, and I certainly don’t hold it against them. I am not opposed to and strongly support equality among men and women, but is Clinton really the best choice? My parents and their generation aren’t going to foster the change that I am now convinced we need in this country. Yes, I’m generalizing, I mean no offense to anyone that is in the boomer generation. Generation Y, my generation, is at a cross-road where they need to decide if the status quo is adequate, or if revelational change is needed. One has no risk at all, but has the potential for damage into the next 2-3 decades. The other is loaded, dripping, on fire with risk, however has the potential to upend and reboot the system in ways that could benefit us much longer.
I have not endorsed any one particular person strongly other than that I support third-party candidates in general. My view of the two-party system is that it reinforces the other, unspoken, two party system that we’re all currently living with now. We’ve all heard of the 1%/99% division in the country, but I think it goes much deeper than that. The 1%, aka elite, are a group of people who control an overwhelming majority of the wealth in this country and truly can do what they want, how they want to, and essentially without impunity by the law. The remaining 99%, aka non-elite, is the rest of the country who are unfairly measured against the law that has been distorted by the elite to keep all of us in check. The law is no longer equal. The elite have managed to completely distort the founding fathers ideal of a true democracy where absolute law is the core belief in only 40-50 years. We are essentially two types of economies; the 1% socialist elite and the 99% capitalist non-elite. They want us to keep buying stuff, creating more debt, surrendering our freedom to become modern slaves to our debt. Debt that is becoming increasingly harder and practically impossible to get away from.
With this explained, I am now officially supporting the Libertarian Johnson/Weld bid for the presidential election this year. It was recently announced, that for the first time since 1996, a third-party candidate will be sitting along side the Democrat and Republican nominees in all 50 states. In an election year where a lot of normal Americans do not like either Clinton or Trump, a third party nominee is a welcome relief. His platform is more in alignment with my newfound understanding of the problems in our country right now, more so than either Clinton or Trump combined. My fear is that, should he actually pull off the upset of the millennium, he won’t have any traction during his entire 4 years as President due to the gridlocked House and Senate. Executive Orders aside, he absolutely needs to have support of the Legislative branch of the government in order to effect any real and lasting change. The more likely scenario is that he garners a much larger chuck of the Electoral votes that prevents Clinton or Trump from reaching the minimum 270. The election in 1800 was the last time that this happened. The process to decide the President/Vice President is truly bizarre and is explained HERE.
The 1% is, in my opinion, truly afraid of one thing. That the 99% remaining population catches on to their deception, lies, manipulation, and socialist ways and decides to make a change through who they decide to vote for. Regardless of whether you think your vote matters or not, the fact we can still vote despite the control the 1% has of us is a core Constitutional right. Granted it took more than 100 years to even get that right, it eventually did get changed to where 1 American equals 1 vote. I’m happy that a third-party candidate is on the ballot in all 50 states because I was seriously close to not voting for the next President. I would be no more effective than a rock at that point. We as Americans need to start realizing that knowledge is power and individually we have the power to affect change at the highest levels of government. We need to take the time to re-learn how to wield this power again and flip off the elite in this country. I’m still appalled that 97% of the people in this country make less than $250,000/year yet the majority of them have decided to not vote for multiple reasons. I’m sorry, but if you don’t vote, you need to get off your ass and get to the voting booths and make your voice heard. There is a powerful message sent when 97% of the country unites and screams at the same time demanding change to the current system. Well, you going to vote?
Life Between 0 and 1 
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times!
I’ve been slowly reading Throw Them All Out. I can only read a chapter at a time, its content so sickens me. I had no idea politicians can invest without restriction based on information obtained through work. That they have done so–and extensively–and worked to elevate their friends isn’t just “politicians being politicians.” They have long ago ceased, by and large, to represent the people, driven instead by the urge to obtain more, more, more for themselves. The inequality isn’t a flaw but a feature of the system that so rewards them.
Did you know they can and do earmark enormous sums of money for pet projects directly benefiting them, which is totally acceptable as long as at least one other person is also benefited?
Disgusting, all of it.
That Rs are lining up being the D candidate is no accident. She is the preserving-elite-power candidate, for anyone interested in lending action/history more weight than campaign words (which seldom have anything to do with what happens after the campaign).
The status quo doesn’t help us in the 99%. But it’s impossible to demonstrate that to anyone who closes their eyes and plug their ears.
I get the response, of course. I do. The last few months of learning that everything I knew was wrong has been profoundly uncomfortable. I’m glad I accepted the discomfory, though; we can’t begin to change that which we refuse to see as a problem in the first place.
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I’m so confused how so many people can just “accept” how things are right now. We are labeled radicals for speaking our minds, in most cases the truth, but I think the radical label should be for those who don’t listen and just accept. They’re the ones in the economic experiment that goes against how things were run for the first 150 years.
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Totally agreed. In a world where so much information is so widely available, so many cling to misinformation and disinformation because it’s most prominent.
Being called “radical” makes me laugh, not quite because it’s funny. The fact that it’s “radical” to not want to kill hundreds of thousands of people for U.S. strategic dominance is … amazing. I therefore concur with your idea on what should be more appropriately described as radical.
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Also, Stein/Baraka is on in 45, and may be written on in 3! Would that third parties did not have to fight so many legal battles just to get on the ballot. Doesn’t help us, the 99%.
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Now it’s a game of who yells loudest, 1% or 99%.
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