By Matt Kyle | Staff Writer
I was eligible to vote in my first presidential election last November, and I cast my ballot for Joe Biden. It was something I had been waiting a long time to do — to finally be able to make my voice as an American citizen heard. I had spent four years angry, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Now, supposedly, there was. But even with the right to vote, there wasn’t anything I could do to create change.
I didn’t want to vote for Biden. He was my absolute last choice for the Democratic nomination, and I still have no idea why the Democratic National Committee pushed so hard for him to become the nominee. But as much as I hated Biden, I hated Trump even more. Like many people, I bought into the narrative of “the lesser of two evils.” What a false narrative it was.
As bad as Trump was, Biden has, so far, been arguably worse. He has completely backslid on many of his campaign promises. Biden pledged to stop detaining migrant children but continues to do so. The $15 minimum wage hasn’t happened, and the $2,000 stimulus checks never came. Biden said he would decriminalize marijuana yet fired staffers for past use — even though Kamala Harris said she has smoked before. He royally screwed up the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Plus, he makes so many gaffes and rambles on about God-knows-what that it really makes me question his mental state. Furthermore, it really makes me ask why we have to choose between two “evil” options. Why can’t we vote for someone who we actually like and who we believe would be a good choice for office?
The thing is, we can, but so many people have been convinced they can’t. If I could go back, I would vote for Jo Jorgensen. Many people would not have liked this. They would have said that it was a waste of a vote or that a third-party vote is a vote for Trump. If Biden had lost, they would have said that it was all of our faults.
People have the right to make their voice heard. It is not our fault that in your mind, there are only two ways of speaking.
There is no difference between a Democrat and a Republican. They are politicians. They are not here to serve the American people. They are here to line their pockets and convince you that what they do is good and that what their opponent does is bad so that you will reelect them. In reality, though, they are the same. Both Biden and Trump have sexual assault allegations and a history of racism. Members of both parties insider trade. Their job is to listen to the people and do what they want, and they are terrible at it.
So I ask again, why? Why do we keep voting for them? Why do we keep believing their lies? They rely on us to keep them in power, they consistently fail us, and we keep putting them back in power. It has been a two-party system for the past 250 years, and nothing ever changes. The problem is not the left. The problem is not the right. The problem is the people in power and the system they created to stay in power.
Most of Biden’s voters didn’t want to vote for him. Many people who don’t vote choose to sit out because they have lost faith in the current system and don’t want to vote for a candidate who doesn’t represent their views.
What if all of these people voted for third-party candidates instead? It probably wouldn’t be enough to overcome one of the established parties, but it would certainly cause a disruption, and that is the entire point. Democrats and Republicans have convinced us we have to pick between them. Enough people have been convinced, and I believe if the system can at least be disrupted, they might be able to see that it doesn’t have to be this way.
Abandon the two-party system. Both parties have utterly failed the American people. Vote for third-party and independent candidates. Vote for candidates who you like and who best represent your views.
As young Americans, we have the power to create change that will last into the future. We have to act now.
