Voting third party will send a message to D.C.

Editor,

The U.S. political process is dominated by two political parties due to our first-past-the-post system. However, this doesn’t mean that we should not or cannot expand the political discussion. I was disheartened after listening to the final presidential debate Monday night because the two candidates did not demonstrate any important differences. The debate was basically a competition to laud Israel and demonize Iran, with no clash of ideas at all present. This similarity holds true for most big issues, with the exception of some domestic moral issues, such as abortion and gay marriage.

Obama/Romneycare works through insurance corporations, and both candidates support increased free trade, expanded executive powers, deportation of “illegal” immigrants, and, most importantly, both want to expand offshore drilling, fracking and the Keystone project. Bill Clinton eloquently described Democrats as the party of “We are all in this together,” while saying Republicans believe that “You’re on your own.” This might have been true in 1932, but nowadays Republicans support Medicare, and Democrats are bailing out large corporations instead of the general populace. Today’s political discussions are nitpicking at the details, not battles between paradigms.

This also applies to our local Senate and congressional elections.

Martin Heinrich and Heather Wilson agree on a wide range of issues: they want more pork for Kirtland Air Force Base, they bailed out the banks responsible for our economic crisis and neither can get enough of the middle class. Where are poor people supposed to get representation? What about anti-nuclear activists (seeing as Kirtland is a hub for nuke assembly)? Or those who want government out of the market? What about those who don’t like the government regulating drugs, marriage or guns? Or folks who feel global warming is the highest priority? Neither candidate is seriously attempting to accommodate any of these groups, so what can those of us in one of these categories do?

We can vote third party. Things will be worse if the worst of two evils is elected, but nothing will change if we do not make our dissent heard. Democrats know that they can count on environmentalist votes because the Republicans are so much worse than them on environmental issues. Republicans know they can count on free market votes because the Democrats will intervene at least as much.

The only way to make the big parties pay attention to your cause is to vote third party. Because our political system is so cutthroat, it produces parties that care more about winning than any set of ideals and morals. So only when the winning of elections is affected will they change a position. When Al Gore lost (supposedly) on account of the Green Party, the Democrats realized they needed to pay more attention to the environment.

For these reasons and more, I voted for Jill Stein of the Green Party for president, Bob Anderson (an independent) for Senate and Jeanne Pahls (Green) for House of Representatives. Those last two are write-in candidates, by the way. I hope you’ll all vote for the candidate who shares your views, too.

Avery Jepson-Browne
UNM student