Opinion: Can a third-party candidate win? by Yosef Stein

ysBy Yosef Stein. If you’re like most Americans, you’re probably tired of this election cycle by now. 2016 has been a frustrating- and oftentimes embarrassing- year for many in this country. Public polling reflects the disgust that many Americans have for both of the major-party nominees. Hillary Clinton has the second-lowest approval rating of any major-party nominee since pollsters began asking the question – second only to Donald Trump, whose abysmal numbers are even worse than those of the scandal-tarred Mrs. Clinton.

There are signs that Americans on both sides of the aisle, unhappy with those two options, are seeking alternatives. Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, who earned less than 1% of the popular vote in 2012, is averaging around 6% in the polls this year. In addition, independent candidate Evan McMullin is threatening to become the first third-party candidate to win a state since 1968. The historic third-party surge this year is a direct result of voters’ dissatisfaction with the major-party nominees, and particularly with Donald Trump.

Can a third-party candidate actually win, though? Is there a chance that America might not be stuck with a President Clinton or Trump after all? Admittedly, the chances of anyone else being sworn in on January 20 are close to nil. However, that does not mean that casting your ballot for Johnson or McMullin is a waste of a vote. Particularly in a state like New Jersey, where Hillary Clinton will undoubtedly win regardless, the proliferation of votes for a third-party alternative this year can be a powerful statement that we will not be forced to choose the less repulsive of two repulsive candidates.

Everyone knows the issues with the Democratic and Republican nominees. Mrs. Clinton is too corrupt, dishonest and liberal. Mr. Trump, besides for being corrupt, dishonest and liberal as well, is also unhinged, clueless about policy, and simply far too dangerous to hand the nuclear codes to. Faced with these two choices, many voters have decided to cast votes of conscience against both of these abhorrent individuals. To help readers better understand the options available, I have written brief bios about several of the more prominent candidates running.

David Evan McMullin

Who is Evan McMullin? The 40-year-old conservative independent candidate has a fascinating resume, especially considering his relative youth. McMullin worked in Jordan as a refugee resettlement officer for the UN. He spent 11 years as a CIA operative. He then worked for a couple of years as a private-sector businessman before becoming a senior national security advisor to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. In 2015, McMullin became the Chief Policy Director for Republicans in the US House of Representatives. He and his running-mate, Mindy Finn, are strong conservatives who oppose Trump because they recognize that he is neither competent nor conservative. Finn is proudly Jewish. She worked for the Bush administration and assisted the Romney campaign in 2012.

McMullin is the only conservative running who actually has a chance, however slim it might be, to make things very interesting this November. McMullin, who is only on eleven ballots nationwide, is currently in a dead heat with Donald Trump for the lead in Utah, a majority-Mormon state which awards six electoral votes. In the event of a tight race between Trump and Clinton, a McMullin victory in Utah (and possibly even Idaho, where public polling is sparse) could potentially send the race to the House of Representatives, where Republicans have a significant majority. Would House Republicans tap McMullin, who used to be the Chief Policy Director for the House GOP? Anything is possible in this crazy election season. Unless Trump manages to close his huge deficit against Clinton, though, a McMullin win in Utah will not have any real impact on the race.

Can McMullin actually be the next president? That scenario remains highly unlikely. But he could certainly win Utah, which would make him the first third-party candidate to win a state since 1968. The main advantage of writing in McMullin (he is not on the ballot in New Jersey) is the ability to vote for a real conservative who you can be proud to cast your ballot for. If you’re a fan of trivia, you may be able to tell your grandchildren about the time that you voted for a third-party candidate who actually won a state – that’s not likely to happen again anytime in the near future.

Gary Earl Johnson

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee for president, is an interesting guy. The former two-term governor of New Mexico typically attends campaign events and TV interviews sporting white sneakers. He is a fitness junkie who actually climbed Mount Everest. And his unique, somewhat leftist brand of libertarianism has led some members of his own party to oppose him. His high-profile foreign policy blunders, such as when he professed ignorance about Aleppo, the city at the center of much of the violence going on in Syria, have sucked a lot of the air out of his campaign. His Vice Presidential nominee, former two-term Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld, is far more qualified and is also much closer to the conservative mainstream.

Johnson’s polling numbers have tanked over the past few months, slipping from double digits to approximately 5-6%. As such, Johnson’s chances of making a significant impact on the race are not very high. I would strongly caution against voting for Johnson- not only because of his out-of-the-mainstream views, but also because it would harm the Republican Party if he gets 5% nationally. In that event, the Libertarians would qualify for federal matching funds for their nominee in 2020. That could result in millions of additional dollars spent in favor of a candidate who will likely be competing with the Republican nominee for votes.

Donald John Trump

While Donald Trump has tried to turn Hillary Clinton’s corruption into one of the primary themes of 2016, the truth is that Trump’s ethical track record leaves much to be desired as well. For starters, Trump has actually admitted to buying off politicians with campaign donations in order to get them to do his bidding. The money he claimed to have raised at a charity event for veterans in January does not seem to have actually been distributed in its entirety. In addition, the businessman’s non-profit charity, the Trump Foundation, has been mired in scandal after scandal. The Foundation donated $25,000 to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi right before she decided not to pursue charges against Trump in relation to the mogul’s fraudulent Trump University, an incident which raised a lot of eyebrows due to the appearance of corruption. As Hillary Clinton pointed out in the last debate, Trump also used Foundation funds to buy a six-foot portrait of himself- a sign of both his narcissism and his flippant spending of charitable donations made by others.

Any attempt to decipher Mr. Trump’s true policy leanings is bound to fail, as the businessman has been all over the map on the issues. He supported partial birth abortions, a grotesque procedure that even many liberals oppose. He later insisted that abortions should be outlawed and that women who seek abortions should be penalized, a position that was condemned even by the most fervent opponents of abortion. On guns, he once supported an unconstitutional assault weapons ban. Now he claims to support the right of Americans to own the guns of their choosing. He has praised liberal policies as better for the economy than conservative ones, but now he insists that he will implement a conservative agenda. He supported a socialist system of healthcare far more leftist than Obamacare, but now he claims that he will repeal Obamacare and replace it with health-savings accounts. And all this change supposedly took place between the ages of 60 and 70. If you believe that he’s sincere about all this, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Trump’s lack of fitness to take charge of America’s foreign policy is well-documented. Besides for his affinity for Vladimir Putin, who is the US’s greatest geopolitical foe, Trump has made ridiculous statements throughout the course of his campaign that demonstrate his cluelessness about American foreign policy. When a question about Aleppo caught him off guard (yeah, him too) at the second general election debate, Trump simply posited that Aleppo has “fallen,” a factually incorrect statement. More dangerously, Trump wants America to withdraw from the world stage and allow more countries to pursue nuclear weapons. His trade policies would kill American jobs and businesses, stifle economic growth, and economically alienate America from the international community. Trump is dangerous. If you choose to vote for him anyway, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

There is little about Hillary Clinton that Americans do not already know. We know that she’s corrupt- from lying about Benghazi, to Emailgate, to the Clinton Foundation pay-to-play allegations, to the many scandals that plagued her husband’s administration, Mrs. Clinton’s corruption is widely recognized. We also know that she’s a calculating politician who is willing to adopt any stance that is politically expedient- if you didn’t know that before, the latest WikiLeaks email dump makes it abundantly clear. She is liberal, but not radically so. She has many foreign policy failures under her belt, but she at least understands that we can’t withdraw from the world stage in the manner that Trump has suggested. In short, she is undoubtedly the better of two very poor options. I personally will not be voting for Mrs. Clinton, but I hope she beats Donald Trump.

Regardless of who we decide to vote for, Hillary Clinton is going to be our next president. She has opened up a large lead over Donald Trump nationally and she has led in nearly every poll of nearly every swing state since the beginning of October. The polls are not rigged. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The only thing that’s rigged is Donald Trump’s mind, which is rigged against the idea that he will lose because Americans are disgusted by him. Mrs. Clinton will win not because voters like her or her policy proposals, but because Trump is so much more repulsive. I never thought I would have to say this a year ago, but a Clinton win is the best (realistic) election result for the country at this moment. Let’s just hope that down-ballot Republicans do not get dragged down along with Trump.

This content, and any other content on TLS, may not be republished or reproduced without prior permission from TLS. Copying or reproducing our content is both against the law and against Halacha. To inquire about using our content, including videos or photos, email us at general@thelakewoodscoop.com.

Stay up to date with our news alerts by following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

**Click here to join over 20,000 receiving our Whatsapp Status updates!**

**Click here to join the official TLS WhatsApp Community!**

Got a news tip? Email us at newstips@thelakewoodscoop.com, Text 415-857-2667, or WhatsApp 609-661-8668.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Your so biased against trump it’s sad.
    The point you are missing is with the electoral college it’s not hard to pay people to vote in the few states that count. Its much easier to rig than the liberals want us to believe. I believe it’s rigged as well as many other smart people who understand the process.

  2. Finally someone in the frum community has the guts to tell the truth. Just because Trump is Republican, doesn’t mean he is conservative. Hillary is flawed, but not as flawed as Trump. And for someone in the community who doesn’t want to vote for either of the corrupt candidates, McMullin sounds like the best option. Thank you for writing this important information

  3. Thank you! I have been looking for an “out” in this election. I agree 100% that Trump and Hillary are two of the saddest excuses for candidates and I could not see voting for either one eventhough I always vote. I appreciate your presentation of the alternatives eventhough they are a very long shot it still gives me the opportunity to perform my civic duty.

  4. Excellent article. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thanks for laying it all out on the table. A chesed for our Trump infatuated community.

  5. I don’t know why they keep printing articles from this author in TLS. There are a lot of words, but not many facts.

    Here are some facts. Evan McMullin is not even on the ballot in most States including NJ.

    Evan McMullin has zero chance of winning

    Evan McMullin was a plant installed by NeverTrumpers, in other words, Hillary Supporters, to try to split the vote in Utah an cause Trump to lose the State and thereby the election.

    No one knows who Evan McMullin is. Even NR, the home of the last of the NeverTrumpers had an article stating that there is no evidence that Evan McMullin is a conservative, he has no track record at all and has not been vetted.

    Evan McMullin’s only chance tow in any State is in the Mormon dominated Utah, because a few prominent Mormons Romney amongst them, do not support Trump, and McMullin is a Mormon.

    When being interviewed McMullin was told straight out he will not be able to stop Trump and Clinton, his response was that he was OK with just stopping Trump, virtually admitting that his goal is to get Clinton elected (not very conservative, is he)

    The article further states that Trump doesn’t have any policies, the fact is he has many detailed policies, more so than Clinton, who has recently been trying to mimic Trumps policies on some issues.

    The fact is that the NeverTrumpers are in the pocket of the Better Business Bureau. Which should be renamed the Global Business Bureau.

    The BBB has no interest in America or it’s economy, it’s only concern is the share price of the stock, and the more international customers they get the better, regardless of how it effects the trade deficit, labor market, or economic stability of the country. (Contrast that with German Companies that are profitable, yet still make their products in Germany).

    The NeverTrumpers are afraid of Trumps Policies, because their gravy train of cushy corporate sponsored think tank jobs, corporate campaign donations, and lucrative lobbying gigs will be over.

    I am not anti-business. And although the BBB is anti-small business (the number of small businesses in the U.S. has been shrinking while global corporations are merging to create monster corporations), I am not anti-global corporations, however there can be a happy medium.

    At the rate that mergers are happening, in another 50 years the entire country will be working for a handful of corporations, it is as if anti-trust laws were never passed.

    Getting back on point, it is likely that the author never realized the motives behind the small NeverTrump faction, but he is playing his small part by being there useful tool.

  6. One other small point, what is this obsession with “saving the Republican Party”?

    The Republicans ran and won the Senate on the platform of repealing Obamacare and Curtailing Spending and Stopping illegal immigration. They won the House and Senate with that platform, then did absolutely nothing they promised

    This isn’t color war where you support your team. It’s not Red China or the Soviet Union where party comes before citizens and the country. The ineffective establishment pary needs to be exposed and reformed.

  7. This is a binary election, and trump is the better option. if you vote for a third party you are wasting your vote, sorry to burst your bubble.

  8. The polls are rigged, with almost all of them oversampling Democrats, along with other questionable tactics. How else do you explain a 19 point swing in the CBS poll in Florida in one week.

  9. To Just wondering,
    I am just wondering if you really read the articles before you comment. These articles are extremely well written and fact based. In fact a lot of the facts that you commented on are included by the author! Go back and really read. These opinion pieces might not reflect your opinion but they are well constructed and thought out, unlike some of the comments they receive.

  10. To #14, opinions that are formed by stating a case with facts have some value. Opinions advocating voting for someone so they can tell their grandchildren an answer to a trivia question, are a waste of ink.

    Advocating voting for someone who’s mission is to get Hillary elected is also half-naked logic. If someone wants to write an article advocating voting for Clinton with arguments backing it up, they should go ahead an do so.

    Writing an article, in the guise of being a conservative, advocating an action that will only help Clinton, is an insult to the readers intelligence.

  11. @JustWondering are you really that dense, or are you just pretending to be so that you can baselessly attack this article for having opinions different than you? First of all, the author did not say anywhere that trivia is a reason to vote for a candidate. He was making the point that this cycle is unusual, like he said in the exact sentence you’re talking about-that it’s not likely to happen again anytime soon. The reason it’s happening this year is because people hate both Trump and Clinton so much, with good reasons. Second of all, even if that was his point, you’re totally ignoring all the other points made in the article because of one argument that (you think) was made which you don’t like. But it’s not really surprising based on all the conspiracy theories you were spouting in your comments. Nobody ever heard of McMullin? Do you think that McMullin wasn’t really the Republicans’ house policy director? Or do you think they just pick a random person off the street to form the party’s policies? Do you also think that the earth is flat? Your comments are ridiculous.

  12. To attack the author as either (a) a dupe of Clinton supporters -supposedly pulling the strings of the Never Trump movement (which by the way, long predates the general election) – or (b) himself an undercover true-blue Clinton supporter ignores the fact that (after making a persuasive argument for it) he comes straight out and says that he hopes she wins – or, rather, that he loses.

    As a right-wing conservative on any significant issue you would care to discuss, I am voting against Trump precisely because (a) he is not conservative on almost any issue of importance (one exception being for scaling back government regulation, which is not something is populist blue-collar base is touting), (b) he has shown that in any case he is not driven by ideology but rather by narcissism, and (c) his election will destroy the Republican party – which like it or not is the only possibly effective vehicle for conservative policy – and remake it as a personality cult for himself, a low-life menuval.

Comments are closed.