In addition to the three major candidates, Hillary Clinton (Democrat), Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Donald Trump (Republican), US voters have other nine candidates to choose from in this Presidential election:
- Bob Whitaker (American Freedom Party);
- Tom Hoefling (American Independent Party);
- Darrell Castle (Constitution Party of the United States);
- Jill Stein (Green Party);
- Gloria LaRiva (Party of Socialism & Liberation);
- Emidio "Mimi" Sltysik Socialist Party of the USA);
- Jerry White (Socialist Equality Party);
- Alyson Kennedy (Socialist Workers Party);
- Chris Keniston (Veterans Party of America).
It is important to highlight that not only the mass media discriminates against candidates from parties other than Democrats or Republican, but that the vested interests of big political parties are frequently colluding to deny access to the ballot to the candidates of small and emerging parties.
A case in point is the Hoefling/Schulin ticket, Presidential and Vicepresidential candidates for the American Independent Party, that Republicans consider a threat that may steal votes from their conservative followers. Republican elections officials in Florida and Arkansas has thus officially succeded to prevent the American Independent Party candidates to appear in their two States' November 8th general election ballot.
This Party nominee appeared on the ballot in both States in the previous elections under similar circumstances and rules, but lawyers from the Republican Party found loopholes in the law to knock off the ballot the names of Tom Hoefling and his running mate this time. They are appealing but the clock is running out for them. Nevertheless, their ticket will be available for voters in the other 48 States.
Voters should check on the platform of many of these candidates to have a really informed choice in November. Just to mention one of them without extending too much this message, I'll transcribe a quite interesting recent speech from Bob Whitaker, candidate for the American Freedom Party, because I consider quite relevant to share it with our readers to make a point about the fact that voters have other possible choices:
"My name is Bob Whitaker and I am running for President.
I have been in active politics for over sixty years. I worked on Capitol Hill and was a presidential appointee.
Every election year you hear people say that if you vote for a third party you “throw away your vote.” I am telling you this as a political professional. The American electorate is divided into three titanic groups. There are the Democrats, the Republicans, and the non-voters. The biggest group by far is the non-voters.
Political professionals always have that mountain of non-votes in the back of their minds. There is one indication of where that mountain of non-voters might go if they came to the polls, and that is the tiny parties that refuse to go along with the Democrats or the Republicans.
The Prohibition Party never got as high as one percent of the vote, but Prohibition became law. The Free Soil Party twelve years before the Civil War never got one percent of the vote, but their platform became the Republican Party and dominated America for generations.
Every political pro knows the lesson of the 1932 election. In 1932 President Herbert Hoover ran for reelection, and he got more votes than anyone before him had ever gotten. But Hoover wasn’t just defeated, he was crushed. The non-voters of 1928 blamed Hoover for the Depression and they came out in their millions and threw him out of office.
We need all the usual things. We want your vote, your money would be welcome, but what I am asking for right now is You. But most of all we need you to get out there and tell our rulers that we the people are sick of things as they are and we are here to tell them so."
Whitaker's message was certainly a short speech, but much more uplifting than the day to day trash we are hearing from the two main candidates all over the media. He is talking about choices voters have. They only have to come out and vote. Voters not only have three major preferential choices in November (those mentioned in the first paragraph), but many. Just find out who you'll like best. A brief research on your part might be quite revealing.
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