With the upcoming elections being at the height of everyone’s concerns, I found my calling as one of clarity. The 2016 election is taking its place in history as the worst election in the last couple decades. What’s my silver lining? The 100% likelihood that when I can vote, it will be nowhere near as awful as this.

I am currently asking myself how a country as “great” as America ended up with two of the trashiest candidates, who spew the most toxic garbage out of their mouths currently fighting it out for the position of president. It’s careless as flipping a coin. Our candidates are in charge of the future of America, and if “democracy” represents what we think it does, they reflect the America the voters want to see.

Being a Libertarian, I have always had views that tend to line up with certain members of the Republican party. With little publicity for the libertarian party, there were few options. But I will never support Donald Trump. Yes, he represents the Republican Party, but he does not represent me.

The crooked Hillary Clinton lies to the faces of Americans, turns her back on the soldiers posted in Benghazi, and has had her pathway to politics carved out by riding on the back of her husband. Criticized for often changing policies, she has flipped opinions many times to appeal to the American people. In her time as senator, she supported NAFTA, was against gay rights, and supported the Keystone pipeline. Then there’s the emails.

The email scandal surfaced last March, when it was discovered that Sec. Clinton was using a private email server rather than one maintained by the federal government. That means her server was more liable to being hacked and had less security, which for the sake of the 2,000 classified emails she had, is a pretty big deal.

Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president. She doesn’t have the have the honesty, nor is she trustworthy enough to be president.

And then there’s Trump. A misogynist with no decency, a blatant racist, and a pig. The biggest hypocrite I’ve ever had to listen to. A billionaire with an ego. In the eyes of many, America is screwed.

3rd party voting is the best option Americans are left with. With one of these two lounging in the oval office, we ruin our credibility. Are we really going to attempt to criticize other countries, when we have these clowns competing to be president?

We’ve been through it all before. Democratic presidents with empty promises, as well as their Republican counterparts. But nothing has changed. Our country has been involved in 48 wars within the past 20 years. We were at war under a Republican, we are at war under a Democrat. Our economy has remained negatively stagnant, and the middle and working class continue to suffer. The majority of Americans would tell you that the poor are taxed too much, and the rich aren’t taxed enough.

A poll done by Washington’s Blog claims that 84% of Americans believe that politicians are more interested in protecting their own power than doing what is right. We have reached a status quo where the people cannot trust in its government.

We are overwhelmed by political polarization. It is relatively clear to see that they are both parties too preoccupied with wanting to dominate the other to be able to actually focus on improving our country.

This presidential term it became undeniably clear that Obama is unproductive. And not because he didn’t try to validate our problems: He wasn’t able to because the senate would turn down any agenda he had. If you do not control the senate, it results in rejected bills. We need 3rd party politicians in power so that they can take an alternative stance and get things done.

My motto for this election is a fairly well known concept that dates back all the way back to The Odyssey. “The lesser of two evils is still evil”. What that means is that when you have the choice of two bad situations, simply choosing the more appealing of the two is not a valid solution.

So why should you vote 3rd party? Well, I’m not going to tell you who you should vote for and who you shouldn’t. I’m not here to throw your beliefs out the window, unlike two Americans who *cough cough* may or may not be running for president.