Position Paper #4 Wild Card

 Third Party and Their Involvement in 2020 Election

    For my wild card paper I decided to write about third party vote and its candidates and its involvement if any in the 2020 election. This election the main focus was of course Donald Trump and Joe Biden which are from Democratic and Republican Party. No one really gave awareness to the third party vote and some Americans did decide to cast their ballot upon the third party. The third party vote really will not have any major relevant in elections because of the electoral college. It is still important to realize who and what the third party vote is about. Starting off with what does the third party vote mean. In terms of politics, the third party vote is any other vote besides the main two parties: Democratic and Republic. The third party is often referred to as the minor party. In most cases, the third party vote is forgotten and overshadowed by two parties. In this election, third party vote was a serious consideration for some Americans because they could not choose which candidate this year to elect. Although in the end, the third party vote fell short this year with Joe Biden being chosen as president. The third party vote wasn't as popular or had much more impact this election than the past. Nonetheless, the third party vote was still significant enough for Americans to wage the idea of a third party president. Now moving on to the key third party presidential candidates. There were many third party presidential candidates but three were only central to this year's election. 

    The first third party presidential candidate I will be discussing is Jo Jorgenson. Jo Jorgensen is an American libertarian political activist and academic. Jorgensen was the Libertarian Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2020 election, in which she finished third in the popular vote with about 1.8 million votes, 1.2% of the national total. Among Trump and Biden, Jo Jorgenson was the leading lady and pillar of Libertarian Party to finish with a fair amount of votes compared to Trump and Biden. Many people have pondered the idea that the votes for Jo Jorgenson would increase Trump's chance at a win. The statement cannot be proven entirely. Jo Jorgenson says in a statement with The Guardian that a vote for her doesn't affect the other parties' votes. Jorgensen herself doesn’t believe she is responsible for Republicans’ losses, and that the party’s candidates are to blame. “They should be mad at those candidates for not following through on their campaign promises,” Jorgensen told the Greenville News, which is in her home state of South Carolina, earlier this week. She reportedly said that many of her supporters were “recovering Democrats” who want US troops brought home from abroad, as well as Republicans tired with federal spending (The Guardian). Now I stated briefly before that Jo Jorgensen is part of the Libertarian Party, so now let's discuss what they are and what is their purpose. The Libertarian Party is a political party that seeks to maximize autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing free association, freedom of choice, individualism and voluntary association. Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, but some of them diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing economic and political systems (Libertarian Wiki). Libertarians tend to not place their similarities within the Democratic or Republic Party but share things like from both than they fail to realize. The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971 by David Nolan. 

    

    The party viewpoints include emphasizing individual liberty in personal and economic affairs, avoidance of "foreign entanglements" and military and economic intervention in other nations' affairs, and free trade and migration. They also favor minimally regulated markets, a less powerful federal government, strong civil liberties (including LGBT rights, with the party supporting same-sex marriage), the liberalization of drug laws, separation of church and state, open immigration (Libertarian Party Wiki). To sum the Libertarian Party, they are the third largest political party and are politically connected to Democratic and Republic Party than people will admit. The second candidate among the third party vote was Howie Hawkins. Howard Gresham Hawkins is an American trade unionist and environmental activist from New York. A co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, Hawkins was the party's presidential nominee in the 2020 presidential election. The Howie Hawkins campaign didn't make as much impact as Jo Jorgensen in this election. 

    Howie Hawkins only earned 346,000 votes in the presidential election against Jo Jorgensen 1.8 million votes. A big shock to Howie Hawkins campaign was that from his native state he only received 0.2 percent of votes. Howie Hawkins in an interview with the Daily Orange says he wasn't shocked. Telling Daily Orange, Hawkins attributes the Green Party’s losses in the 2020 election to two factors: a staunch commitment among progressives to remove Trump from office and the fact that Hawkins appeared on fewer ballots nationwide. The Green Party was on the ballot for 30 states this year, as opposed to 45 in 2016 (Daily Orange). Howie Hawkins is also the co-founder of his party Green. Green Party was founded in 2001. The Green Party of the United States is a federation of Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory, grassroots democracy; gender equality; LGBT rights; anti-war; anti-racism and ecosocialism (Green Party Wiki). The Green Party is pretty self-explanatory. The Green Party is all about the environment and things connect to the earth which include people and other living things. 

    Lastly talking the final third party presidential candidate is Kanye West. Now there was a lot of controversy surrounding Kanye West running for president. Americans across the country regard Kanye West as a nominee as a joke and did not take him seriously. Even so, enough people believe his policies and beliefs to secure him 60,000 votes for the presidential election. Kanye West regards himself affiliated with the Independent Party. The American Independent Party is a far-right political party in the United States that was established in 1967 (Independent Party Wiki). Overall, the third party vote didn't have a very big mark on the presidential election but still enough to clench voters. I don't believe this will be the last we will see of the third party vote. In the future, I think the third party vote would be more popular and might even be favored in the future. At the end of the day it's always important to learn about the third party vote and why it is still relevant today.