Jeremy Lott

As voters suffered through the third presidential debate in Los Vegas, Nevada, Wednesday night, with the top two candidates literally calling each other puppets, a crazy, wonderful idea came to me about how we might be able to do better than this miscarriage of democracy. Here it is: Vote for the candidate you want to vote for. Not feel compelled to vote for, want to vote for.

If you want to vote for Donald Trump, by all means vote for Trump. If you want to vote for Hillary Clinton, vote for Clinton. If you want to vote for Gary Johnson, vote for Johnson, so long as you can remember his name. If you want to vote for Jill Stein, vote for Stein. If you want to vote for a McMullin or a McMuffin, go for it.

I’ll be writing in the name of my own father, Bob Lott, because he’s a good guy and, frankly, because I’m sick of being told whom to vote for. Millions of people share this frustration as well. It’s time we did something about it.

This year, America’s two-party system has failed us as never before. We have two candidates who are unpopular and riddled with scandals. They don’t just have skeletons in their closets. They have graveyards packed in there, threatening to break the door down the minute one of them is elected.

This truly is a race to the bottom. But we are told that we have to vote for Trump to keep Clinton out of the White House, or vote Hillary to keep The Donald from the Oval Office. Any other choice amounts to throwing away one’s vote or, worse, helping coronate the most menacing of candidates.

But what if that’s exactly the wrong way of thinking? What if enough people so splintered the vote by voting third party, blanking their ballots on the president or doing write-ins that the winning candidate — still likely Trump or Clinton, unfortunately — had only 25-30 percent of the total vote?

The winner could attempt to claim a mandate with that vote, but who would buy it? Any nominees for Cabinet, ambassador and especially judicial appointments would be subjected to extra scrutiny. Budget proposals would be dead on arrival. Vetoes could be easily overturned. Impeachment and removal would be real possibilities. Primary challengers would form a long line, making a second term truly unlikely.

Democracy is based on the consent of the governed. By refusing to be herded or bullied into supporting one of these two candidates, we would be withdrawing a good deal of that consent and sending a clear message to both Democratic and Republican parties. Do a better job next time or maybe you won’t be around for much longer.

Again, if you want to vote for Trump or Clinton, I’m not here to persuade you otherwise. You have your reasons, and I respect that. But millions of us don’t want to vote for either of these choices. In a truly free country, we should feel free to do exactly what we want with our votes. It is our right, our choice and, ultimately, our independence.

Jeremy Lott is author of the vice presidential history The Warm Bucket Brigade.