Going Green: An Eastern student expresses their reasoning behind voting third party in the 2020 election.
By Anonymous
With the increasingly tumultuous political climate, many people are looking at third-party candidates. Instead of blindly voting for a third-party candidate for the sake of “protest voting,” it helps to understand the important issues and platforms for which a third-party candidate stands.
The Green Party has consistently stood for important environmental policies throughout the years—from its beginning as a committee in the 1980s all the way up to its recognition as a national party in 2001. With the impending climate crisis, it is important to voters across the country that environmental policies be taken seriously at the national level. Neither main party has convincingly stood up for our nation’s environment in the modern political era. It has become more important than ever to take direct action against disastrous climate change.
The Green Party presidential candidate, Howie Hawkins, first ran on the Green New Deal platform in 2010; he has supported and led the push for the Green New Deal for the past decade. While the GND gets repeated backlash from the Democrats and Republicans, it is critical to understand this policy pushes for immense job creation while “reorienting society towards an ecologically sustainable future,” according to Howie Hawkins’ candidate website. To create a sustainable future for our generation, we need to make sure our country returns to comfortable inhabitability as soon as possible.
Another critical policy the Green Party has supported for quite some time is Medicare for All. In our highly developed nation, it is inexcusable for anyone, regardless of their age, income, health, and other factors, to go without affordable healthcare. Howie Hawkins stands by the notion that everyone deserves health care at little to no cost. Our current healthcare system is built on a profit motive rather than a care motive. This means that our hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and health insurance companies focus on the best ways to make money, rather than the best ways to take care of people’s health. Under Medicare for All, everyone in our nation will be guaranteed healthcare, regardless of their economic status.
These are just some of the numerous policies that make voting Green Party reasonable and conscionable.
Source: HowieHawkins.us
Riding the Trump Train: An Eastern student enthusiastically voting for Trump’s reelection explains their thoughts.
By Anonymous
I am voting for the re-election of President Donald Trump due to the fact of two things: first, denouncing white supremacy, and second, the aid he has given to African Americans.
He has denounced white supremacy time and time again, according to a source from the White House on August 14, 2017, he said “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” The president had denounced White Supremacy over seventeen times. The mainstream media have claimed a plethora of times that the President is a racist but as previously stated has denounced the KKK and white supremacists in general.
The second reason that I am voting for the president is due to the fact that he has done a lot for African Americans. He has signed the First Step Act in December 2018 on the 21st, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons is an act that is for prison reform which says that “the act was the culmination of a bi-partisan effort to improve criminal justice outcomes, as well as to reduce the size of the federal prison population while also creating mechanisms to maintain public safety.”
One of the things that the First Step Act did is reduce that life in prison mandate to the mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison, which led to prison reform. The president had also deemed to prosecute the KKK and hate crime under the Platinum Plan. Overall this election has been good, and his momentum is strong in regard to helping the American people. He keeps his promises and wants to see the best of America, by being there for the people and putting America first.
Sources: BOP, The White House, The Platinum Plan
Enthusiastically Settling For Biden: Vote as if your life depends on it, because it does.
By Kay O’Keefe
Another election cycle with two candidates whose views don’t align with mine is upon us. Who will I vote for? On the one hand, Presidential nominee Joe Biden and VP nominee Kamala Harris embody the moderate, bourgeois, pro-cop, status quo rhetoric which plagues the Democratic party. On the other side, President Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence represent the growing trend toward fascism, rise in authoritarian evangelical Right, corruption, nepotism, and agitation of race relations, if not flat-out white supremacy.
As a queer woman, my rights are under attack. As someone interested in ethics and politics, I have a deep-set frustration with the two-party system and a pull to vote for a third-party candidate whose views might actually align with mine. However, when I think about the greater good for the general American population, my choice is clear. On November third, I will vote as if my mother is an immigrant, and my father disabled. I will vote as if my brother is incarcerated and my sister can’t afford healthcare. I will vote as if my life depends on it. Because, for many people in America, it does.
For those people, I will vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. For my right to marriage, and in protection of my reproductive rights, I will vote for Biden. For my neighbors and friends who watch their brothers die from police brutality, I will vote for Biden. For my fellow humans, in need of empathy, care, and loyalty to the democratic system, I will vote for Biden.
Yes, I’m settling. And yes, he’s good enough. Vote Biden / Harris. Lives depend on it.
Why I’m Not Voting: A concerned student explains why they have chosen not to vote this year.
By Anonymous
The right to vote is something that has been, and continues to be, an essential part of citizenship. Voting is a right, a privilege, and a duty; we are blessed to live a nation where leaders are elected. I truly believe this. However, I will not be casting a vote in the upcoming 2020 United States Presidential election. ‘But why?’ I hear you ask, and the answer is simple: I refuse to vote because I refuse to voice an opinion that isn’t mine.
Fox News, CNN, my parents, my friends, my grandparents, and my teachers all seem to know what their political views are. They are confident in their beliefs, enough so that they are willing to take a stance and defend it. I have never been so sure of my political views. I have been called ‘apolitical’ by my family, and I am sure that others would call me indecisive, naive, or even a permitter of evil due to my lack of political engagement.
As much as I love my family and friends, I cannot trust them to be unbiased while trying to help me decide my political views. No one is explaining what they think so much as they are trying to convince me that their opinion is right. People tell me to do more research and insist that I check news sources like Fox, CNN, and C-SPAN in order to learn more about the political climate. They point me towards blogs, newspapers, YouTube videos, speeches, tweets, and Facebook posts. It is all done out of love, but when I look at all the different opinions and the hate used to defend them, I become incredibly overwhelmed and discouraged. I have yet to find a calm, unbiased news source. The sources which are available are extremely biased on both ends of the political spectrum – so much so that I cannot tell what the truth is.
Thus, I do not watch the news, nor do I have any interest in doing so; I am an already stressed college student, and I don’t need more negativity. One might say that I am making excuses for myself, and that laziness is not a valid reason not to vote. I agree with the latter, but I do not think of myself as lazy. Rather, I simply do not know exactly what my political views are, and neither the news nor any other information source is helping me decide.
If the point of voting in the U.S. presidential election is to voice your opinion, I do not have a reason to vote, because I do not have a strong opinion. People can try to convince me one way or the other, but until I come to a conclusion for myself, I cannot in good conscience take part in the election. I refuse to vote for someone whose position I do not completely support or understand, and I refuse to voice an opinion that isn’t mine.
Hannah Bonanducci 
Shane Witzer