Why Vote for a Third Party

November 5 will be the day I go to the polls and vote for a presidential candidate that I wholeheartedly believe in. For far too long, I have been voting for the lesser of two evils, but not this year, because I have a choice. Most people do not know this, but there are other candidates running for president besides Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

There are actually four additional candidates running-depending on which media source you google-and they include:  Claudia de la Cruz of the Peace & Freedom Party, Cornel West of the Justice for All Party, Jill Stein of the Green Party, and Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party. How many of us have even heard of these candidates? Why is that? And why weren’t they included in the presidential debate? Why are the Democrats and the Republicans so afraid of truth and freedom of speech?

Our political /educational systems and media outlets have failed to educate the electorate about other options. And this is actually what the system is designed to do, to keep the Democrats and Republicans in power so that corporate interests and the military industrial complex can maintain their control over the federal government and continue to exploit the working class here and abroad.

And there are those that insist that if I vote for a thirdparty, I am taking away votes from Harris or Trump, which means the more evil candidate would win. This means that if enough Democrats were to vote for a third-party candidate, Trump would win.

I am tired of evil. I do not want evil to be part of our government any longer! The U.S. funding, approved by Harris, of the Israeli genocide on Palestinians is pure evil. I will no longer vote for evil. Please take time to educate yourself about the other candidates running for president so that you will see that you have a choice.  Together, we must send a message to Democrats and Republicans that we will no longer accept evil as part of our country’s values.

Helena Pasquarella directs the US Department of Peace.