Lately, the phrase “choosing between the lesser of two evils” has been tossed around a lot when referring to the mess that has become of American politics. Even though politics can be seen as a taboo subject, all  people seem to agree upon is our lack of options.

Some say they are voting for Hillary just because they don’t want Trump anywhere near the White House, and others are just bummed that Kasich didn’t have a fighting chance, as they felt he was the most level-headed candidate out there. Whatever the predicament may be, this tedious argument is becoming hard to listen to when discussing the nature of choosing the next leader our country. So maybe the best decision is not to vote or look at all the opinions . Now, I know every government teacher is rolling his or her eyes at this plan and think this is just another apathetic youth not wanting to get involved in politics…. But think about it, is it really the right thing to vote if you are just voting for someone because you don’t want the other person to win? Or maybe let’s look at the other people in the race such as third party candidates.

Voting is a right granted to almost every citizen by the Constitution, as the AP Government Book explains. Thousands of people have fought for different groups’ right to vote. The Civil Rights Movement fought hard for the rights of all ethnicities to vote and later women fought for the same rights. Right now there is a movement to allow former felons the right. After all the death and heartache that has been fought over suffrage, we have resorted to checking a box on a ballot in order to try  to do the least amount of damage.

In addition, it is not the people’s fault that they don’t want to vote, but rather it is because of those who are running. For starters, we have Hillary, who many people don’t like because she is too “establishment” or because well, she is just Hilary. According to the National Review, often times people see her as indecisive, tending to move back and forth when deciding on critical issues (nationalreview.com).

On the other spectrum, there’s Bernie. Bernie was able to captivate a young audience and ignite a passion in some people who were previously not politically active. Bernie made it a long way, and made it very clear that a candidate with very liberal views can go far in an election, but many believe he wasn’t electable due to his self-declared social democrat ideology.

Senior Corey Goldstein stated, “Even though I was excited to vote in my first election, I have decided not to vote, because I personally don’t think any of the candidates are of the right mind to run a country.”

As far as the Republican side goes, there’s Trump. The fact that a person who has no experience in politics is leading the Republican race proves that our country is getting desperate. “Nearly half of American voters who support either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump for the White House said they will mainly be trying to block the other side from winning, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday”(reuters.com).

However, if the idea of not voting makes you Craig and send chills down your back look at other options. According to Politics 1, there are many other parties out there that people are not aware of. These parties include: independents, green, constitutional, libertarian, peace and freedom and socialist. Now these parties normally do not win because the way or electoral system is set up but there are other options out there to make sure your choice is not based on choosing the best worst candidate (politics1.com).

In addition there is always the option to vote for someone based on on single issue you strongly believe in. According to the AP Government textbook this system is called single issue voting. For instance, one thing Clinton feels very strongly about is gun control and if you feel strongly about gun control maybe focus on this issue and forget about some of her other issues she focuses on that you don’t agree with.

So what’s the solution, you ask? Hopefully,this is the one and only time these words will come out of my mouth, some of my last words to be printed in the school paper, but… if you don’t like either candidate, then just don’t vote for a major candidate. If you feel the need to vote you can exercise your democratic rights by voting for a third party or use the single issue voting method. So for this upcoming election, let’s think before lining up at the polls. Ask yourself what the motives are behind voting for a particular candidate and think about your options.