Welcome to Election Night 2024! I’m your host Jared Martin. Let’s take a look at what is happening around the country. With polls closing nationwide, our newly elected government is beginning to take shape.

In the presidential race, incumbent President John Kasich and Vice President John Hickenlooper, Independents, have taken an early lead over Green Party nominee Bernie Sanders, Republican Ivanka Trump, Libertarian Rand Paul, and Democrat Cory Booker.

In the Senate, Sen. Gary Johnson (L-NM) is well on his way to reelection, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (G-NY) will be taking over for the late Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in a special election.

Meanwhile, Rep. Evan McMullin (I-UT), Rep. Justin Amash (L-MI), and Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) all are cruising towards easy victories in their Congressional races.

As seen by these results, the tides have turned in America. Since the election of President Donald Trump (R-NY) in 2016, there has been a tremendous shift in sentiment among voters. Several ballot initiatives and pieces of legislation have leveled the political playing field in our now multi-party system. One such endeavor was the adoption of ranked choice voting (RCV) by a vast majority of states between 2020 and 2022. Combining this with the Supreme Court striking down the Commission on Presidential Debates in 2023, and the United States has reopened its public sector to new blood and new ideas for the first time since the Civil War. The movement has proven the country did not need to shift to a parliamentary system to include multiple parties and independents. Instead, with a few adjustments, more voices have been brought to the table at public demand.

And with that, our final results have arrived. President Kasich has secured reelection after forming a tremendous multipartisan administration during his first term. The Senate and House of Representatives are more diverse in thought then ever, as shown below.

United States Senate

United States House of Representatives

Overall, the people are to thank for this new challenge to extreme partisanship. And the people are the ones who will benefit. We look forward on these new officials with optimism for America’s tomorrow. Godspeed to each and every one of them.

We are at a time of significant political uncertainty in America. As of the time of this post, the statistical analysis website Five Thirty Eight currently predicts that the Republican Party has an 82.3% chance of maintaining control of the United States Senate, while the Democratic Party has an 84.5% of taking control of the United States House of Representatives. We will soon have a split legislature, and at a time of extreme bipartisan polarity, the regular American is left to wonder what happened.

The United States has long been a country of differing opinions. From the days of Hamilton’s Federalists and Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans to the Democrats and Republicans of the 20th century, people (and politicians) often disagreed over the direction our nation would be taking. They swiftly organized into parties to combat the other side on the battlefield of ideas. However, modern politics has left behind the latter realization. It has grown beyond a battle of ideas. Unfortunately, some have become so blindly allied to an ideology that they are willing to execute violence and vitriol towards an individual in disagreement.

In the past few years, this intolerance and hatred has risen from both sides of the aisle. The denial of service at certain restaurants based on political affiliation, the extremist heckling of public officials, and uncontrollable riots have all been symptoms of this growing trend. Even more unfortunate is the fact that some have come to outright violence. In 2017, a Congressional baseball practice was the site of a vicious shooting, injuring Republican Congressman Steve Scalise and several others. This attack was brought about by a left-wing extremist (a Bernie Sanders supporter). Meanwhile, just recently, several explosive devices were mailed to the Clintons, the Obamas, and more by a right wing extremist (a Donald Trump supporter).

Essentially, this rise in political violence cannot be attributed to any one politician, but to the growing hatred for the “other” being espoused by every single partisan in Washington, D.C. At such a time of uncertainty, one can only hope we can return to civility sometime soon.

No American can deny the fact that our great nation is at a moment of political polarity not seen since the Civil War of the middle 19th century. Even at that time though, the Senate consistently had over 10% of its membership belonging to parties outside of the Democrats and Republicans. People believed in people. They believed in ideas. They trusted their lives to the institutions of America. But they did not trust their lives to partisanship.

In recent years, the political machine that is the two party system has successfully snuffed out independent thought. With more and more Americans leaving the two major parties, the most extreme progressives and conservatives are left to run for office. Our choices are becoming more and more radical. Independent voices are often silenced. A growing number of Americans are looking for change, for centrism, for compromise. We dream of taking power from the two major parties and forcing them to work towards the center.

It has been nearly 50 years since the last true third party candidate was elected to the United States Senate. That was Senator James L. Buckley, a Conservative Party member from New York. However, by the time of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, third party Senators were seemingly extinct, with Sen. Buckley losing his reelection bid. In 2018 though, an independent voice in the Senate is more needed than ever to mediate the steep partisan divide, as exemplified by the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation.

Enter Governor Gary Johnson. Once a successful, two-term Republican governor of highly-Democratic New Mexico, Johnson has recently been in the news for mounting two Libertarian campaigns for President of the United States. In 2016, Johnson and his running mate, Governor Bill Weld, accrued more votes than any third party candidate since Ross Perot. After the election, Gov. Johnson went back to his usual routine of intense physical fitness. He spent most of 2017 biking the entire Continental Divide. Johnson has made a name for himself as a physically fit, trailblazing legislator. One of the first elected officials to support the legalization of marijuana, Gov. Johnson became known nationally as a fiscally responsible, socially tolerant leader. He draws views from both Republicans and Democrats. He is a form of the middle ground. And in 2018, Gov. Gary Johnson is running for U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Martin Heinrich and little-known Republican nominee Mick Rich.

In recent polling by NSON Opinion Strategy, Johnson was shown to be at 28%, trailing Heinrich, who was at 36%. Meanwhile, Mick Rich was at 10%, and 26% of respondents were undecided. With an endorsement from Republican Senator Rand Paul, and others likely incoming from other elected officials, Johnson has a real chance at becoming the first third party U.S. Senator in over four decades. In what may be a 50-50 locked Senate (including Vice President Pence’s tie breaking vote), a Senator Johnson would be the ultimate arbitrator of legislation. Americans deserve someone to reign in the extremists who now inhabit the highest positions of power in the land. This can be our first step.

According to Gallup polling from October 2017, 31% of Americans identify as Democrats, 24% identify as Republicans (GOP), and 42% identify as Independent. These are actually very unusual and notable numbers, specifically because that Independent number is on the rise. More people are registering outside of the two party system than ever before, with the GOP and Democrats losing thousands of Americans every single election season. In modern America, people are finally noticing the inefficiency and corruption that is the two-party system. Millions are discovering that they have other options. Registrations are spiking for Independents (No Party, Nonpartisan, etc.), Libertarians, Greens, and more. Recently, citizens have been made aware that there are choices outside of your standard corrupt Rs and Ds, especially during the 2016 presidential election. Third parties are on the rise, in registrations, donations, and screen time. However, they still face several major hurdles.

One of the biggest hurdles for smaller parties to earn more votes and electoral victories is the argument that they will play spoiler to a candidate from one of the older parties. Often such arguments come from individuals who believe in what the third party candidate has to say, but that inspiration is outweighed by their fear of one of the major party candidates. Thus, instead of voting for a candidate they support, the voter votes against someone they fear. A variation of the spoiler argument also goes something like this: “Why vote for them if they won’t win?” This is a tremendous logical fallacy. The minor party candidates don’t win because you don’t vote for them. And you won’t vote for them because they won’t win. It’s a vicious cycle. These arguments, however, would be nullified by a change in the standard American voting system.

Currently, the USA utilizes a first-past-the-post system in which the candidate with the most votes, also known as a plurality, wins, regardless of whether or not they gain a majority. Thus, some results are very suspicious, and races tend to trend into two person races. This very year, the New Mexico Senate election is a three-way race with a Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian (Gary Johnson). The winner will likely come away with only about 38% of the vote. This is a disappointment to democracy. A new system would solve all of these issues.

The system is called Ranked Choice Voting. Voters rank candidates based on preferences. Essentially, the ballots are accumulated into an instant runoff election, eliminating the lowest vote-getter until one person attains a majority. In the end, such a change would encourage minor party development and break the two-party stranglehold on our democracy. A diversification of ideas and compromise would ensue. Hopefully, such action can soon be taken.

In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, Big Brother rules with a despotic hand over Oceania, preaching the values of “the Party”. The most common diatribes say, “Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength, War is Peace.” These ideas are pounded and ingrained into the minds of the public and imply a certain degree of servitude. The people are led to believe what they are told by their leaders. Free thought is discouraged and outright illegal. All that comes from the mouths of politicians should be considered true. To these misled citizens, truth is not empirical and intrinsic, but formulated by superior minds.

Unfortunately, the duopoly of modern American politics has polarized disagreement to the point that the truth is being lost. Many speak “their own truth”, ignoring reason, logic, and evidence in the process. “Ignorance is strength” in the world of political clout today. This issue has been brewing for several years now. By 2016, the egos of our politicians peaked at the point where truth could suddenly be created out of thin air. Then-candidate Donald Trump coined the term “fake news”, accusing several left-leaning media networks like CNN and MSNBC of bias and lying to hurt conservatives and his presidential campaign. Suddenly, millions of his supporters were subject to the truth at his discretion. Credible reports on the climate and the economy were abruptly ignored by people. In a response, the left has become even more agitated and semantically engaged, returning fire with their own accusations of “fake news” towards Fox News and Trump’s team themselves. To a normal American voter, all of the mudslinging makes it virtually impossible to know what the truth is. And, honestly, in modern America, the truth oft lies unspoken or left unexplored.

Most recently, this bipartisan effort to dissolve the truth has come to fruition in the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. Whether you agree with Kavanaugh’s political tendencies or not, this entire process has been a political circus by both sides. After his confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh was accused by Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford of sexually assaulting her in their high school years. Kavanaigh denies this. The significance and weight of such an accusation cannot and should not be taken lightly. Time should be taken to properly investigate the claim and to expose all of the facts. However, neither of the parties in power have that in mind. Most Democrats are mainly focused on delaying the vote until after the midterms, and it is hard to deny that based on their hesitation to address the issue until after initial hearings. Meanwhile, most Republicans are more concerned with a man’s reputation than investigation a serious allegation against him which weighs heavily in the evaluation fo his character. Overall, the entire situation has led to unprecedented posturing and jawing back and forth between the two sides. A hearing was held, and here we are, the truth still unknown. Perhaps it never will be. That is the absolute shame of contemporary America.