Ralph Nader: Third-Party Votes Aren't a Waste
With less than a month until Election Day, Millennial and undecided voters could play the role of “spoiler” with many voters feeling disenfranchised by both major political party candidates not seen since Ross Perot’s third-party bid for the presidency in 1992.
Could a vote for a third-party candidate mean a wasted vote?
Four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader dismisses the wasted vote sentiment and says a third political party has historically been responsible for policies ignored by both Democrats and Republicans.
“They are not a wasted vote at all. They get things underway that the two parties are ignoring taking off the table. The Liberty Party in 1840 that went out against slavery. The Women’s Right to Vote Parties in the mid-nineteenth century, the Farmer’s Labor Party and they never won a national election but they push the envelope of these justice pathways onto the table of one or two of the major parties. It’s decent, decent is the mother of ascent in American History,” Nader said in an interview with FOX Business Network’s Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast.
Nader says everyone has a constitutional right to run for office.
“We all have an equal right to run for election under the constitution, to get votes of one another. We’re spoilers of others or none are a bigoted term directed to third party candidates who are trying to give a broader agenda and give more choice to the American people.“
Donald Trump trails Hillary Clinton in nationwide polls and in key battleground states as Trump continues to express his disbelief in the data saying at a Monday night rally, “Even the polls are crooked."
“Well, I think he’s destroying himself and the party, as a candidate. He’s-- the party is turning into a Trump dump and a lot of Republicans are bailing out on him and that’s going to reduce his vote turnout. When you have Republican candidates in states like Arizona and elsewhere, bailing out on him, that’s going to reduce the vote for his candidacy,” Nader told host Neil Cavuto.
Nader explained why, despite Trump’s poll numbers and disparaging comment, the GOP presidential nominee is oddly competitive with Clinton.
“Because she [Clinton] is his best asset and he [Trump] is her best asset. They’re people in this country who intensely dislike Hillary Clinton or who intensely dislike Donald Trump. To have the highest un-favorability ratings in American electoral history there in 60, 65, 68% of the people in this country think that Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton are dishonest. This is where we’re at. Don’t the American people deserve better,” he said.
Nader said he thinks the political climate has reached a point where Trump scares the business community and Clinton scares the generals of the arm forces.
When asked who he would choose between the two candidates, the ‘Breaking Through Power’ author said, “I think Hillary Clinton is certainly knows the ropes, she’s not going to be on the job training. Whether she has good judgment or experience is another thing. He doesn’t know the ropes, he’s going to blow steam hour by hour and he’s going to so alienate the Republicans in Congress and put them in a conflict of interest for their own skin and survival in 2018 elections, that I think he could be the fastest impeached president in American history because when it comes to politicians who it’s either their skin or the president’s skin, they’ll take their skinny day.”