Voting Third Party in America

America is now at a critical moment in this history where everyone is crying for change. The abuse of power has been taken so far in both the major political parties which make up our governmental system that they have become detached from their responsibility of representing the people as elected officials. Representatives assume they know what is best for the citizens of the United States, regardless of the American people’s thoughts about their political decisions. Politicians know that, come election time, they can always jam our media airwaves and newspapers with repetitive fear tactics and rhetoric, and the people will continue supplying them with power.

Each party runs on it’s own rhetorical vocabulary and fearful propaganda designated to what is popular and important to Americans in that given year. Speeches are often calculated from polls taken about the real concerns of the American people and used at the pedestal and microphone in ambiguous and transformative ways. That way they can manipulate what ever they say to fit in with the desires of the American people without presenting any real or concrete solutions. If pressed for something more substantial than rhetoric, then they will answer in the most opportunistic way while still leaving room to go back on their word once elected into office. As a result, the buzzword for every campaign is always a synonym for “change” and the product of finger pointing from one party to the next.

The change persists election after election because the American people are exasperated by a cumbersome and irresponsible beaucracy; Americans are sickened by the growing national debt; Americans are tired of constant unconstitutional warfare; and the people are done with failed economic policies. Yet, a closer look at what the Republicans and Democrats have to offer us for so-called change reveals too many bleak similarities. Do not allow yourself to be deceived by their tactics of rhetoric and fear. Why would either of these parties truly change when they have already been getting away with abusing the false sense representation of the American people for decades.

The fact is: both major parties have political agendas to be fulfilled which are starting to look more similar all the time, despite their miniscule differences that each party magnifies in the public media. They also have many monetary affiliations and lobbyists to appease. There are entangled webs of special interest agendas that each party wants its members to fulfill, regardless how American citizens feel about them. Both parties have had this power given to them for so long that it is currently being taken for granted. That is why: when economists across the nation have warned the government about the economic crisis that we are currently facing, over the last decade, if not longer, the government did not take any steps to reduce the possibility of crisis. It conflicted with their political agenda to react in a way that would diminish their supply of money and power.

These are the same elected officials who proposed so called “change” to the American people during the election. It is guaranteed that their political agendas did not just disappear over night in response to our failing economy. Take for example the presidential debates. The very first question offered to both candidates in the last election was an opportunity to really show how they were going to change their agenda accordingly to the economic crisis. Both candidates skirted the question and gave the public another overview of the same platform they have been toting all along.  Citing that their opponent’s ideas were worse for the American people, they both spent the rest of the debate nitpicking and avoiding the actual questions that Americans direly need to know the answers to.

Americans are sick and tired of voting for a candidate out of fear of the other. This essay is a proposed solution to the failed politics in our governmental system. The time has come to strip these big government parties of their power and give it back to the people. It is time to vote for a third party. It is time to make a vote that counts, and vote for a party that isn’t so congested with lobbyists and big politics that they forget to think about the American people.  Neither major party offers voters much of a choice, other than superficial differences. Do not be discouraged by the “wasted vote” theory. Everyone knows that what you vote for in these major parties is not what you are going to get. That is undemocratic. That is a wasted vote. How can we waste our votes anymore than throwing them into the same old garbage heap of “bipartisan” politics we have been for years?

Voting for something out of fear instead of something you believe in is a wasted vote. That’s how we got stuck in Iraq. That’s how we got lead into a recession. More of the same politics is not going to strengthen our country in the least. Americans need to start standing up for true democracy that is so professed in this young country. How can politicians be expected to have any integrity if those values are not reflected in how we vote? Stand up to these ridiculous fear tactics, and bring the power back to the people. The corrupt, dysfunctional and undemocratic system needs to be deconstructed and rebuilt into a shiny new form of democracy, one that actually holds some resemblance to what the founding members of this country originally established. These politicians have held their monopoly over our tax dollars and rights long enough. Third party is going have the heart and mind to listen to the American people because they will consider it a privilege to serve the people, rather than the political career that major party politicians turn our votes and tax dollars into.

Ben Franklin once said that a healthy democratic society needs a revolution every two hundred years. It is about that time. Let us stand together and revolutionize this failing democracy and governmental system. Consider this a bloodless coup. Consider this seriously as an American the next time you vote.