With police strangling innocent men to death and people burning shit down like it’s the apocalypse on top of a pandemic with hyper authoritarian stay at home orders, it appears that our 2 party system has failed us.
When we think of American politics, we typically think of the neoconservative Republicans and the faux liberal Democrats but these 10 folks decided to stick out their middle finger to that and run as a 3rd party.
10. Gary Johnson/Jill Stein.
The 2016 election was a living hell with the 2 main candidates being Wall Street cocksucking Democrat Hillary Clinton and conspiracy loving edgelord Republican Donald Trump. However, there was also Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party and Jill Stein of the Green party. While these 2 candidates were infinitely better then the 2 main options (even with Gary not being that smart and Jill being besties with Putin), Gary only got 3.28% of the vote while Jill only got 1.07%.
However, this was enough to piss off the DNC because this dynamic duo apparently prevented Hillary from winning, even though Gary siphoned a good amount of votes from Never Trump Republicans as well.
8. Ralph Nader.
The 2000 election was VERY close, with George W. Bush only 2 votes short of losing the electoral college and only winning Florida by 537 votes. Meanwhile, Ralph Nader got 2.74% of the popular vote with the Green party so naturally, they blamed him for ruining the election. However, Florida’s butterfly ballot system is the real culprit, as it caused many Al Gore voters to accidentally vote for Reform party’s Pat Buchanan instead.
7. Ron Paul
A paleolibertarian who wanted the states to decide everything not listed in the constitution, he really didn’t fit in a party. While his views are quite similar to those of pre-FDR Democrats, the modern Democratic party would rather endorse a frozen turd then someone who’s strongly pro life and anti taxation, so he spent most of his life as a Republican.
However, after being strongly dissatisfied with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, he became a member of the Libertarian party and was their nominee in the 1988 presidential election, getting 0.74% of the popular vote.
While he did return to the Republican party 8 years later, he refused to endorse fellow Republican John McCain after losing the Republican nomination in 2008, instead endorsing Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution party.
6. Eugene V. Debs
This socialist got 3.44% of the popular vote…while in prison. In 1918, Eugene was arrested for encouraging people to dodge the draft and remained in prison until pardoned in 1921. However, he ran as a Socialist in 1920 despite being ineligible to vote himself.
5. George Wallace
Most famously known for his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, lifelong Democrat George Wallace decided to run with the American Independent party in 1968, winning 5 states (plus a faithless elector) and almost throwing the election to the House.
However, he returned to the Democratic party shortly thereafter.
4. Theodore Roosevelt
The only time since the Civil War that a 3rd party candidate got 2nd place, former Republican president Teddy Roosevelt got a whopping 27.39% of the popular vote and winning 6 states in 1912 with the Progressive party after losing the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft.
3. Ross Perot
As a businessman who was half Republican and half Democrat, Ross Perot decided to run as an independent in 1992 and had a good chance of throwing the election to the House. However, he panicked and dropped out in July but returned in September, winning 18.91% of the popular vote but failed to win any state.
Fortunately, this put him well past the 5% threshold to receive federal funds and he ran under his newly created Reform party in 1996, this time winning 8.40% of the popular vote.
Sadly, he refused to endorse Reform party candidate Pat Buchanan in 2000, instead endorsing Republican George W. Bush and becoming a Republican himself shortly thereafter.
2. Bernie Sanders
As a left wing populist social Democrat, the DNC hates Bernie just as much (if not more so) then the Republicans. However, Brenie’s actually an independent and just runs as a Democrat during the presidential elections (pissing off the neoconservative DNC in the process) because he has more in common with them then he does the Republicans and he fears that running as an independent will give the election to the Republicans.
In 2016, the Democrats fought tooth and nail to make sure he lost to Hillary Clinton and again in 2020 for neoconservative Joe Biden. Makes you wonder if they would’ve voted for Trump had Bernie won either election.
- Donald Trump
Wait, you may be asking yourself, are you referring to the hardcore Republican Trump.
Yes i am.
Contrary to popular belief, Trump’s not as Republican as you may think. In fact, he used to be a Democrat but has switched parties 6 times since 1987, including a brief stint with the Reform party, which he tried to win in 2000 but dropped out because Pat Buchanan was too conservative and homophobic for him to tolerate, as well as a brief moment as an independent in 2012 before finally sticking with the Republicans later that year.
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