Who, If Not Trump or Clinton?

• 10.19.2016, 16:46
•  America

On November 8, Americans will elect either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump as their next president. In a two-party system, this is the choice in 2016. But there are two other candidates who are trying to catch the electorate’s attention, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, whose chances of becoming president, though, are less than 0.1 percent.

Gary Johnson, 63, is the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, his second run after 2012. Before entering politics he was a businessman who became a two-term Republican governor of New Mexico (1995-2003) running on a business-friendly, small government and anti-tax platform. Johnson made national headlines for advocating the decriminalization of marijuana, something that Republican politicians usually oppose.

Johnson’s views have been described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal with a philosophy of limited government and military non-intervention, Euronews reports.

In his campaign for the Libertarian Party nomination, he stated that he opposes foreign wars and pledged to cut the military budget by 43 percent in his first term as president. He would cut the military’s overseas bases, uniformed and civilian personnel, research and development, intelligence, and nuclear programs, while maintaining an "invincible defense." 

Another candidate, Jill Stein, 65, is the Green Party’s nominee for president, her second run after 2012. She also ran unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010. In late August, Stein polled at 3.2 percent nationally, but her polling average declined to less than two percent nationally by mid-October. Stein, who is only on the ballot in 45 states and the District of Columbia, has stated that the Democratic and Republican parties are “two corporate parties” that have converged into one. Concerned by the rise of fascism internationally and the rise of neoliberalism within the Democratic Party, she has said, “The answer to neofascism is stopping neoliberalism. Putting another Clinton in the White House will fan the flames of this right-wing extremism. We have known that for a long time, ever since Nazi Germany.”

However, according to the critics, the two-party system is really destroying America. Democrats and Republicans are in a death match and the American people are caught in the middle.

The nation faces all sorts of serious problems, from growing inequality to spreading international terrorism, but the bitter fight between Democrats and Republicans has largely ground government to a halt. Partisans on both sides are so angry they can barely speak with the other, much less work together. The most extreme are convinced that members of the other party are treasonous and purposefully harming the nation, The Hill writes.

''The ''national'' debate presents every issue as a simplistic duality, which trivializes everything. This duality is making our political debate stupid. This creates the ludicrous idea that every public policy problem has two, and only two, approaches. That’s nonsense,'' says Michael Coblenz, Democratic candidate for Congress.

American experts believe they need to kill the two party system as the system change will bring in new voices and new ideas. It will give voters more choices at the polls.