We are witnessing a massive shift taking place in the political body of America right now. More people than ever are sick of establishment politicians and media moguls with a lack of integrity stomping their feet into the faces of middle working class Americans. If anything could make this any more crystal clear, it is the presidential debate that is currently underway.
Not only is it the most popular and involved presidential race in recent history, driving many non-voters to become voters and many who would have previously considered themselves to be one party or another to switch, but a third party is also gaining more traction than ever before.
It's no surprise that Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz are not the ones driving those large numbers of people to become more politically involved. Instead, it's those who are seen as anti-establishment.
Bernie, on the left, is a socialist manifestation of the growing discontent of the liberal voting base with one major issue, big money influence in politics.
Trump, on the right, is a populist manifestation of a growing awareness of the false promise of globalism and the welfare state combined with an open borders policy, creating a state of joblessness and strain on the middle class. He is also similar to Bernie in the way that he is putting up his own money as opposed to taking big money contributions from the corporate elite.
However, a third candidate, Libertarian Gary Johnson, is nearly eligible to participate in the presidential debate, which could lead to a potential third party president that nobody was expecting.
One Monmouth University poll, which he urges us to be aware was the only poll that included a third party, showed Gary Johnson as being at 11 percent of the national voting base, making him a mere 4 points away from the 15 he needs to be included in the debates. After the media has began giving more coverage to Gary his name has spiked in Google's search ratings, indicating that his voting base has also gone up. He insists that if he was included in future polls that he would be in the debate for sure.
"I think Hillary and Donald are two of the most polarizing figures in politics today. When 50 percent of people in this country right now are declaring themselves as Independent, well where is that representation? I happen to think that most people in this country are Libertarian, it's just that they don't know it." - Governor Gary Johnson
Although I fully support Gary Johnson's attempt to change up the debates and offer a third party solution, it begs the question of which party's voters will move to Gary. Either side at this point could end up falling short of their place in the white house if they lose too many votes to a third party.
"In the Monmouth poll, more votes were taken from Hillary than Trump, but statistically at the end of the day third parties take from both sides." - Gary Johnson
If Gary has good delivery, he could surely provide a much needed libertarian point of view to the debate. On the other hand, if he doesn't succeed he could end up swaying the election to another candidate. We'll see in the coming months whether or not this third party candidate will end up making it in the polls, but in the mean time we can always use tools like the internet to research what alternative candidates like Gary have to offer.