John Oliver can see the appeal of voting third-party in a presidential election with major candidates as unpopular as these. Given the mistrust for Hillary Clinton and, well, almost everything Donald Trump has done, it’s little wonder that some Americans are desperate for a viable alternative, with Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein polling at 6.1 and 2.1 percent of the vote, respectively. But voting third-party is a bad move, says Oliver, and not just because picking Johnson or Stein could very well mean putting Donald Trump in the White House.
Both third-party candidates want to be taken seriously, so Oliver spent Sunday night’s Last Week Tonight vetting them seriously, and the verdict was, well, not great. Between Stein’s bizarre folk rock albums and her misguided proposal to eliminate student debt that evinces a complete misunderstanding of economics, she’s just too naïve, argues Oliver, while Johnson can’t even defend his own tax plan or keep his tongue inside his mouth. Choose wisely, America.
