Seeing The Lunge Of The Libertarian Party And The Green Party, US Presidential Election Participants In Addition To Trump And Biden

Photo illustration (Maria Oswalt / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - It should be noted that not only the Democrats and Republicans are competing for the president of the United States (US). There are two other parties, namely the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. What was their political position like under the domination of the two giants, Democrats and Republicans?

Like Donald Trump (Republican) and Joe Biden (Democrat), the Libertarian and Green Party candidates must also receive the 270 votes needed to win the Electoral College. The candidate from the Libertarian Party is Jo Jorgensen. Meanwhile, from the Greens is Howie Hawkins. The Libertarian Party and the Green Party are also identified as third parties.

Citing the New York Times, during the election cycle in 2016, more than 7.6 million US voters cast their votes for candidates other than Republican candidates Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. At that time the Greens played an important role in several important battleground states, even winning votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

It is widely thought that voting for a third party is wasting an opportunity. It is the same with voting for independent candidates. However, according to University of Nevada political researcher Dan Lee, third parties have the most important role in the US.

One of them is to hold big parties accountable. This can be done when major parties underestimate voters or ignore some important issues.

Third parties can also be used by voters to voice protests as a form of referendum on an important issue. If a third party can attract voter turnout, the top third party candidate can attract another candidate at the vote. This helps them win local positions.

However, Dan Lee does not dismiss the reason why the US has only had the same two ruling parties for so long because the two parties are very flexible and develop over time. The more developed the two major parties made it difficult for a third party to obtain electoral letters. Therefore, candidates from third parties experience difficulties in the presidential election.

Get to know the Lib Understanding Party and the Green Party

According to ballotpedia.org, the Libertarian Party has had a presidential candidate in elections since 1972. But the party has never received more than 4 percent of the popular vote. The presidential candidate, Jo Jorgensen, is actually not a newcomer to politics.

In 1996, he teamed up with the Libertarian Party presidential candidate, Harry Browne. He also ran for South Carolina's 4th Congressional District in 1992. But he lost badly. Jorgensen is also a known critic of the US two-party system.

Jorgensen opposes mass detentions, foreign military operations, and major federal programs. This year, Jorgensen and his deputy, businessman Jeremy Cohen, appeared in election polls in all 50 states, including in Washington DC.

Meanwhile, the Green Party is a new one since it was founded in 2001. Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins is a social activist and retired construction activist. Hawkins is a founding member of the party and has run for many posts in the past, including three consecutive runs for Governor of New York in 2010, 2014 and 2018.

The Green Deal and cheap healthcare, two major components of the campaign of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also became the Hawkins campaign. Hawkins also briefly ran as a presidential candidate from the US Socialist Party.

Hawkins and his deputy, Angela Nicole Walker, appeared in the ballot in 30 states, including Washington DC. Among the independent candidates and the third party, Hawkins is the second most popular candidate after Jo Jorgensen. While Jorgensen got 4 percent of registered voters, Hawkins only got 1 percent of support.

Not only a third party. The US Presidential Election was also attended by other "minorities", namely those from independent circles. One of them is Kanye West. Kanye West announced that he was running for US President on July 4, the day of US independence. Although he immediately found support from his wife, reality TV star Kim Kardashian West; Tesla CEO Elon Musk; and some of his loyal fans, his candidacy was also widely rejected by social media users. Many of them saw that Kanye West's candidacy was nothing more than a promotion of his music.

But Kanye West proved his critics wrong. He successfully qualified for presidential voting access in 12 states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont. He is running as an independent member of his own party, which he calls the 'Birthday Party'. Kanye stepped forward with his representative, Wyoming Michelle Tidball.

A survey conducted by Morning Consult and Politico in August showed that 2 percent of the 2,000 registered voters in the US supported Kanye West. Kanye West raised conservative and liberal issues, including ending abortion rights, reforming the police and making renewable energy a top priority.