Many of us learned about the two-party system at a somewhat early age. If you are unfamiliar with this concept, Britannica defines it as a political system in which the electorate only gives its votes to the two major parties. Truly, I believe that this system has caused our country so much disarray. Most citizens describe elections as the voting of the lesser of two evils. Furthermore, voting for a third party is considered a wasted vote to a lot of people. However, I disagree; using your vote to get the “lesser evil” in the office completely bewilders me. In Virginia’s gubernatorial election, we have Terry McAuliffe from the Democratic Party and Glenn Youngkin from the Republican Party running against each other.
Terry McAuliffe has held public office before as Governor of Virginia, but I do not think he did an amazing job. Furthermore, while I do not like Glenn Youngkin, a majority of campaign ads from McAuliffe have just been mudslinging and chalked full of half-truths and downright lies. However, the same goes for Glenn Youngkin, as his campaign advertisements are just as awful. In addition, he has an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. It truly feels like the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns all over again but within my state. In 2016, as we all know, Trump won because of the same logic of voting for the lesser of two evils. Then, Biden won in 2020 under the same ideology. But, when will we finally stop voting for these people to represent because they are deemed a little less subpar than the other candidate?
Personally, I am voting for Princess Blanding from the Liberation Party. Her brother, Marcus-Davis Peters, was shot and killed by a Richmond police officer in 2018. After his death, she went to multiple Black Lives Matters Protests within the city and founded Justice and Reformation, a community activist organization fighting for policing reforms. Furthermore, she also pushed for the Marcus-Davis Peters Alert to go into law. In addition to all of this, Princess Blanding seems like she is more for the people rather than both Youngkin and McAuliffe. If you look at what all she is campaigning for, it seems like our state will actually change for the better by making things more equitable.
Rather than a corporate Democrat like Terry McAuliffe, what I mean by this is that he is a centrist and will make performative laws just as our current governor, Northam, did. For example, Ralph Northam decided to get rid of all the confederate monuments, which I am glad about because they were eyesores. But, what did he actually do to make our state more equitable for Black Virginians? After his Black face scandal, he vowed to make a difference and challenge racial inequality in Virginia. However, all I noticed was that statues were taken down, made Juneteenth a state holiday, and recognized Black History Month. While all of these are amazing feats, I do think that all of this is performative as laws were not passed to combat racial inequality within our state and I think it is time for a change, so I am definitely voting for the third party.