Jace Brady
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Last week, Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, announced that he was seriously considering an independent run for president. With the weakness of Hillary Clinton and the unpopularity of Donald Trump, Bloomberg believes he can sweep enough of the moderate vote to win the presidency, despite his inability to obtain a major-party nomination. Bloomberg was a lifelong registered Democrat but ran for mayor as a Republican, only to drop party affiliation before seeking a third term. This behavior exemplifies how politicians abuse third-party runs and further diminish the possibility of a truly different politician to gain an meaningful share of the vote.

Our first president, George Washington, beseeched the American people to avoid the formation of political parties in his farewell address. He wisely warned against the dangers of a party system and the political gridlock that would inevitably ensue. Despite his best efforts, our Founding Fathers structured a system that almost inevitably led to a country divided by a two-party system.

This electoral organization has besieged Americans with two ideologically extreme political parties with which few Americans entirely agree. The system is inundated with those who feel obligated to cast a ballot for a candidate where their vote will “count.” Those who profoundly disagree with the major parties’ ideologies are forced to vote for third-party candidates.

In 2012, Gov. Gary Johnson felt slighted that he was unable to win the Republican nomination. In an impetuous and childish decision he determined to gain his revenge by running in the Libertarian Party. He gleaned between 1-3.5 percent from the states he was on the ballot in and potentially played spoiler to the eventual Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. There are individuals who are truly committed to opposing views and when petty politicians use third parties to fulfill their grudges, those with the potential to truly provide Americans with an alternative are quashed.

Of course, even when a legitimate third-party candidate runs, it can be detrimental to the democratic process. In 1992, billionaire Ross Perot decided that he had some important views that he wished to publicize by running for president. His chances of winning were minimal, but he was ultimately able to determine the next president with his presence. In the process he caused an electoral anomaly in which a majority of voters did not chose the president. In 1992, Bill Clinton was elected by a mere 43 percent of voters.

While a decision to silence opposition to the major parties by eliminating third-party candidates in an attempt to purify the democratic process may seem prudent, the issue lies much deeper. Several polls have shown that the majority of millennials are fiscally conservative and socially liberal, yet there is no major party that represents these views. Thus, voters are forced to choose one at the expense of the other. There needs to be a fundamental restructuring of the electoral process in our country, where all views are represented. There are systems, including Germany’s, in which even the smallest parties can be represented in government. America must find a way to include more views than two or seriously consider a restructuring of our electoral system.