“Politics: the art of convincing decent people to forget the lesser of two evils is also evil.”

This tweet by Edward Snowden changed my entire view on politics. It made me realize that the constant bickering between the two parties is all about deception. Those in the political theater are simply trying to convince us to vote for them because they suck less than the other side. Expectedly, America is worse off because of it, and just seeing who’s running for president explains this well.

Our issues stem from power-hungry politicians who have ruined tens of millions of American lives. They have shackled the American people and their aspirations. This isn’t even a Democrat vs. Republican issue. It’s understanding that neither is for us, and never will be if we keep them in power. 

A common theme from the Biden campaign and its supporters is that we “need’ a real president again.” Huh? Biden epitomizes everything wrong with this argument.  A 47-year veteran of politics, he’s written and supported flawed law after flawed law that has hurt people and just recently decided to apologize for them.

Trump is a result of people realizing that these hacks are all evil. Each of the last three presidents has racked up trillions of dollars in debt, unconstitutionally bombed different countries, bailed out big banks and corporations while leaving working-class people in the dust, and continued to strip American’s of their rights.  

Whether you like Trump or not, his victory in 2016 showed that people woke up. I’m not a fan of Trump, but I understand why he’s here and super popular within his base. He’s made them feel like they were cared for again. Even though it turned out that he is just another populist politician, voters took a chance on someone against the status quo, and America actually had a sturdy middle-class pre-COVID.

Despite this, he has been just as bad as the last two in office. 

Scandals, sexual assault claims, shady Middle East dealings, impeachment, and corruption have reeked throughout this administration, none of which is new to the three presidents before him.

Think about this — the Vietnam War went on for 19 years, Afghanistan has been going on longer than most high schoolers been alive, Iraq went on for eight years— thinking that our politicians would actually do the right thing and leave these endless wars has become naive. It took riots and a massacre at Kent State to end the Vietnam War. Why did it take so long to end all of these? It never mattered how many Americans lost their lives.

A portion of those reading this article will vote for the first time on Tuesday or have already voted by mail. Both are fantastic. Making your voice heard is vitally important to a functioning democracy. 

But there’s an issue. I’d bet that you have never heard of Jo Jorgensen or Howie Hawkins. Who are they? They are the Libertarian and Green party nominees. If you have ever felt that there are not candidates for you in this election, one of those two probably better fits what you are looking for. They may much better fit what you want in a president. If we had a system that encouraged third parties, they would be much more prevalent in our politics today.

In the present, the issue is that this whole disaster has been caused by the parties saying they will “save” the American people from each other, and too many people actually believe it. 

The media is in on it, too. Each night political pundits rant for hours about how the other side is so horrible. Political issues have turned personal. Watch Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow tonight and see if you disagree. 

The American people are good people. Bu they are caught in a system that doesn’t help them, and they have found themselves trapped in the politics that Snowden described. Who actually wants to vote for Trump? Who actually wants to vote for Biden? Too many Americans are only voting because they hate the other side to the point where they only want to see their candidate beat the other. It’s the only reason why both candidates are here. Our culture is divided, and we’re expected to pledge allegiance to one of the two sides.

The “lesser of two evils” mentality has created a government that spends 30 million dollars an hour on useless wars but has too few resources to promise a good education and good health care to all of its citizens. I don’t endorse Sanders-esque policy on those two issues, but it’s hard to fault him entirely when we learn that the U.S. is spending 900 billion dollars a year on defense while Americans have trillions of dollars in student and healthcare debts. 

Education and health care have long been stable pillars of American life. Why are they massive problems now?

The Department of Education is why. When founded in 1979, the US had the best education system in the world, and it actually stayed that way for 20 years. Now we are in the mid 20’s.

Health care costs were reasonable with sturdy jobs in the blue and white-collar sectors, but now they are life-altering for millions. Those in the middle class are being taxed harder than ever, even with Trump cutting those taxes, and people in the middle class don’t receive enough real benefits from the government. 

Is there a fix? The simple answer is yes. But the complex answer is this:

This country has had the same governing document since 1789, the oldest standing democratic constitution in the world. We thought that we could avoid the disaster of political parties. Despite the bickering between the two, the impact really wasn’t noticeable until the last 40 years. Americans are now worse off because of the divide, and tragically the system isn’t built for change. That was the whole purpose. The endurance of the Constitution is one of the most impressive feats of American strength. However, it is becoming flawed in some areas. With the way it is written, the change is going to have to come at the state level. 

In Maine, they have adopted a ranked-choice, instant runoff voting system for their elections. It hasn’t had a huge impact yet, but third party candidates have had better numbers than other states. Despite this, it is hard for a third party or independent candidate to gain traction for national elections in Maine because the news cycle will only focus on the big two, but if more states adopt a different voting system, more options will be available. 

This matters because we don’t have good choices this year. Frankly, both candidates are poor, and unless we abandon this “lesser evil” voting mentality, we are going to have worse and worse presidential candidates. 

Once we realize that the lesser evil is still evil, we can elect politicians who actually want to represent us and responsibly govern us, not rule us like tyrannical subjects that think we need them to succeed.