(ANTIMEDIA) I see it all the time in my Facebook newsfeed when my politically active leftist friends make posts about why they won’t vote for Hillary Clinton. The most common reaction from liberals is: “DO YOU WANT DONALD TRUMP TO WIN?!?!”

The same can be said about my friends on the right, many of whom will be supporting Gary Johnson in the presidential election. Their posts are filled with Trump supporters making the case that a vote for Johnson is indeed a vote for Hillary Clinton. It’s a strange state of cognitive dissonance when a vote for one candidate is actually not a vote for that person, but rather, a vote for someone else.

It’s a sad state of affairs when the American political debate has descended into voting against a candidate rather than voting for one.

But that’s exactly what it’s come down to, and the “lesser of two evils” rationale is not a new phenomenon brought about the demagogue Donald Trump — it’s been that way for years. Voting against the other person or party is America’s new democracy, and as Anti-Media recently reported, the “vote against the other guy” crowd is also the most highly-engaged demographic among voters.

These arguments are a kind of social extortion, casting opinions that are outside the two-party system as some type of reckless disregard for reality. Do we really want to live in a reality where the main reason to vote is to stop the other party from winning? An even more hilarious (and now debunked) argument I’ve been seeing from the so-called #ReadyForHillary movement is that Bernie Sanders’ supporters who vow to not vote for Hillary are simply exercising a form of white privilege because Trump would be bad for minorities.

Though establishment narratives contend voting for anyone other than Trump or Hillary is a wasted vote, the opposite is true. In fact, voting for Donald Trump or Hillary is a sure way to throw away your vote.

Here’s why:

Republicans and Democrats don’t give a damn about your ballot. Sure, every four years they pretend to listen you; they pretend that it’s your voice they will be representing in Washington. But the rhetoric proves empty when the facts tell a different story. America is no longer a constitutional republic or a democracy. It’s an oligarchy, and the Republicans and Democrats make up the two wings of that big bird.

This is a fact I summed up in a recent article, also featured on Anti-Media:

“Regardless of whether or not hyper-partisans’ candidates of choice win or lose, those politicians rarely actually represent their views — nor do they care to. Rather, as a 2014 Cambridge University study, often referred to as the ‘oligarchy study,’ concluded, ‘economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.’ This research reinforces a recent Boston Globe article entitled, ‘Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change.’”

Politicians lie pretty much all the time. In fact, Donald Trump can’t even get basic facts straight, and his memory seems to “fail” him on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton can only be described as a compulsive liar. But data never lies. The vast majority of legislative actions over the past decades have only reflected the opinion of one group: the super rich. America is an oligarchy — or even more accurately, a corporatocracy. This is why your ballot is wasted if you vote Republican or Democrat.

Will you throw away your ballot by continuing the oligarchy, or will you go up against all odds and cast your vote in favor of the parties who have not been implicated in this national crime syndicate? Will you vote for war, poverty, and oppression with an “R” or “D” next to its name, or will you give peace a chance with a Green or Libertarian party vote? Or will you not vote at all and send the illegitimate oligarchy a message that they do not have your consent to rule over you? The choice is yours.

This article (Don’t Throw Away Your Vote by Voting Trump OR Hillary) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Nick Bernabe and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.