As we’ve seen with Ross Perot in 1992 and Ralph Nader in 2000, third party candidates have the serious potential to affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, as nearly one-third of young people are planning to vote third party. When the majority of the country views the two major party candidates as so unfavorable, it makes any other choice seem good, as John Oliver explained on Sunday night by saying, “If you’re at a KFC Taco Bell and you see a bunch of pigeons eating something in the parking lot, you might well think, hang on, what have they got over there?”
Being that a third party candidate could throw the election one way or another, many see them as “spoiler candidates,” but is that really fair? As such, Oliver took a good hard look at the two main third party candidates: Jill Stein, “the candidate who looks most like she believes carob is just as good as chocolate,” and Gary “What Is Aleppo” Johnson, “the man who in most photographs seems to be around 80 percent sure that he is running for president.”
Unfortunately what he uncovers over the course of the segment is neither Stein nor Johnson are much better than Trump when it comes to floating wild conspiracy theories or having the ability to put forth meaningful policy while demonstrating an understanding of the way our government works. As he sums up, “there is no perfect candidate in this race, and when people say you don’t have to choose the lesser of two evils, they are right, because you have to choose the lesser of four.”
