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During this part of the election cycle, they face an enormous challenge. They must convert the image of Hillary Clinton from the Dragon Lady into a new Eleanor Roosevelt while simultaneously presenting her to the American voting public as the only person protecting them from the modern-day Genghis Khan, a racist buffoon with no political experience who will destroy the country.

The names may change, but the democratic scenario never does. There’s always some Republican neanderthal that the Democratic party will protect us from. This scenario is usually enough to convince many voters to vote Democratic. If a Republican wins the Oval Office, so what? The important thing is that you didn’t vote outside of the two-party duopoly. This scenario has been good enough to use over and over for at least the last forty years and if something’s not broken, why fix it? Guess what? It’s time for a new script!

The Democrats will always tell you how much better they are from the Republicans and you MUST choose one or the other. The barbarians are at the gate and only the Democrats can stop them. Resistance to this thinking is futile. It’s us or them, you are repeatedly told. Any deviation from this thinking will produce a Republican president. This ignores facts like you are not required to vote for one of the two major parties and Republicans are using the exact scare tactics. The percentage of Independent voters constantly increases. It’s now almost 40% of the voting populace and is greater than either of the two major parties, yet people always seem to prefer one of the two major parties. One big reason is the lack of any practical other parties. The Democratic and Republican parties are working hand in hand to keep it that way. Switching from one party to another is acceptable behavior, but any deviation from this norm is not tolerated. New parties meet with ballot access challenges designed for the sole purpose of marginalizing their existence.

One thing you won’t hear much of is how Democrats and Republicans collude on stopping 3rd parties. Collusion between two political parties might hard to prove, but, how else do you explain the lack of ballot access in state after state, year after year. Laws are constantly drawn up to inhibit the campaigns of any candidates or any parties that aren’t members of the two-party duopoly. Shorter filing times, more signatures required and regulations for the third-party and independent candidates that aren’t required for Democrats and Republicans are just some of the ways this happens. Sometimes these laws ar changed by state legislatures, but more often than not, courts settle matters. The laws are so complex, that sometimes many court appearances over the course of several years become necessary before the laws are finally voided. The tremendous waste of time and money needed to just get on the ballot is in itself, a great hindrance, especially when volunteers make up much of your organization.

The two-party duopoly controls the federal and all state governments. They fear any and all challenges and have no qualms about using the apparatus of government to make sure of their continued dominance. If somebody actually gets on a ballot, the media presents them as a spoiler who can’t win. Not only is voting for these candidates discouraged, but even talking about them is frowned upon. Candidates who do meet with any success in getting the public’s attention are demonized. If you live to a hundred, you’ll still hear how Ralph Nader ‘spoiled’ the 2000 election. Even though no such thing as a ‘spoiler’ exists. The person is just another candidate. There is no evidence to support the claims of Ralph Nader being a ‘spoiler’, but there’s plenty of rhetorical hyperbole. The propaganda from the two-party duopoly is something you constantly hear. A few corporations control most of the media in this country and it’s easy to get propaganda from the two-party duopoly into the media, especially when they control the federal government. The same federal government that regulates the broadcast media via the FCC, supposedly in the public interest. I fail to see how constant repetition of propaganda from the two-party duopoly is serving the public interest. It’s been almost 200 years since Vanderbilt said: “The public be damned”, but that’s how the two-party duopoly operates.

The Democrats like to say: “In the primaries, you fall in love, but in the general election, you fall in line”. This is constantly repeated as if abdicating your right to think is actually a good thing. I don’t want to pretend that only the Democratic Party does this because the Republican Party does it also. Some cosmetic changes, but essentially the same thing. Both parties share the same goal; to scare people into voting for them.

The Green Party is an alternative to the Democratic party that needs consideration. They have been around for 30 years, but the Democratic party is doing their best to make sure you never hear about them. If you do, expect to hear the propaganda about how; “they can’t win” or “they’re just acting as a spoiler”. The Jill Stein candidacy is just as valid as that of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. As Jill Stein has said: “Forget the lesser evil, stand up and fight for the greater good like our lives depend on it – because they do”.