The election cycle of 2016 has been a heated discussion for most. The candidates that always come to mind are Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Yet many are unaware of the third party candidates. The Libertarian Party came to rally on Temple’s campus at Morgan Hall on October 29th. Former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld rallied on behalf of Presidential nominee Gary Johnson, and argued they have a quality the other tickets don’t offer.
“We are in the first place fiscally responsible. We’re not gonna take more money than we take in. We’re gonna file a balanced budget within a hundred days of hitting Washington,” Weld said.
Weld’s focus was to increase name recognition and voting numbers so Gary Johnson can make it to the televised presidential debates. Both Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein have not received the 15 percent support needed from the 5 polls recognized by the debate commission.
Many involved in the election argue voting for a third party candidate is a wasted vote. But Bill Weld thinks otherwise.
“Gary likes to say the only wasted vote is for someone you don’t believe in.”
Political Science Professor Carol Jenkins offered her insight as to why the Republican and Democratic Parties are usually the dominant tickets.
“We have very little chance for multiple parties to gain power in the United States because of structure…so we have two political parties, they’ve been in place for a while [and] they have very different platforms,” Jenkins said.
Prof. Jenkins is also with the majority who are in favor of voting for a major party. She says that it is important to have the two major parties because they help identify problems in our society and propose means to fix them.
“So political parties are a way to give voters a way to distinguish what policies should be followed.”
Although there are a ways to go for the campaign, Johnson and Weld will continue to rally and strive for name recognition.
“We’re gonna cascade around the country as far as we physically can. Seven weeks is a long time in politics,” Weld said.
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