For years, teachers and textbooks have praised our government’s two party system. Thus, this country has raised us to believe that we must fully choose one party over another. This dichotomy between Republicans and Democrats, however, does not make for such a glorious system as we have been taught. Rather, it forces us to structuralize our own views to a group we, in truth, hardly identify with, solely because there are no better options.

The Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Socialist Party, all are prevailing political parties, that sadly enough, get no attention in our current system. “I feel like it would generally help to expedite decisions if there were more representatives who didn’t belong to a specific party,” says Ellie Lambrix (11). Lambrix, like many others at this school, feels that she falls in the middle of the spectrum because “my views generally lack pertinence to either side of the spectrum.” This viewpoint is a major issue, and not one that is easily solves through our current electoral system.

Simply imagine the struggle of choosing who to vote for with a moderate viewpoint. For instance, Libertarians would not wish to vote Republican because they do not agree with their social views, but would also not wish to vote Democratic because they disagree their with welfare programs. Yes, the voter could vote for the Libertarian candidate on the ballot, but in a two-party system, that is the same thing as throwing your vote away.

So how can this be fixed? The answer is simple, an organized desire for change. We, as teenagers, currently stand at a precipice, where at a great many of us fall at this moderate level. When we are able to start voting, by refusing to continue to vote for the “big two” at a presidential election, but instead vote for the party that actually suits us, we can make a noticeable difference. We cannot sit here and hope for the system to broaden itself; we must physically cast the vote that shows our allegiance is elsewhere.

I, by no means, am saying that the Democratic or Republican Parties are bad. I only advocate for a political system where more than just two voices are heard, and a wide range of political views can be presented to the country. “The world is made up of give and take,” says Boemin Park (10), “and if we don’t help each other, it’s just going to end up hurting us.”