Articles by Jay Stooksberry

Getting elected as a third-party candidate is no easy feat in the United States. In fact, the deck is so stacked against alternative candidates — courtesy of gerrymandered voting districts that favor one of the major parties, ballot access laws that make it impossible for third parties to gain momentum with each passing election cycle, or public debates that only invite Democrats and Republicans to participate — that it is practically impossible. But the Libertarian Party has created a model t...

Not that it would surprise many, but President-elect Donald Trump contradicted himself recently. Per usual form, Trump stirred up a hornets’ nest of controversy with a recent tweet, suggesting that flag burning—a form of Constitutionally-protected speech according to the Supreme Court—be criminalized. “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American Flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail,” he tweeted. Trump has also stated his interest in app...

Media pundits and prominent publications are putting the full court press on third-party candidates. It is no coincidence that Hillary Clinton’s efforts to attract millennial voters coincides with the pervasive media attack on Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. In The New York Times, Charles M. Blow – concerned about the “folly of the protest vote,” writes, “There is a simple truth here: Either Clinton or Trump will be the next president of the United States. Not Jill Stein. Not Gary Johnson. Clinton...

Understandably, readers of the IVN pride themselves on their status as… well… independent voters. Voters are jettisoning the Democratic and Republican Parties faster than you can say “record high unfavorable ratings.” However, ditching the two-party system isn’t enough; it’s high time that we start joining and registering with third parties. Now, this is the moment where I encourage you to put down the pitchforks, and hear me out. Though IVN champions the mantra of “people over parties,” regis...

Ted Cruz’s infamous “vote your conscience” speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention raised a flag for “Never Trump” Republicans to rally around nationwide. This group of disillusioned Republicans, who still have not embraced the new face of their party, have already started an exodus from their beloved Grand Old Party. Primary exit polls indicated the inevitability of this migration. Before Trump received the nomination, four out of ten non-Trump voters stated that they wouldn’t back h...

Spoiler alert! Is it Perot? Is it Nader? No, it’s Gary Johnson. Like clockwork, immediately following the introduction of a political candidate from outside the two-party system, pundits do not hesitate to discuss how this one individual will “spoil” the election of one dominant campaign. Will Johnson pull his support from the fallouts created by the #NeverTrump or the #NeverClinton campaigns? Johnson has already fielded the question several times since winning the nomination of the Libertar...

The Libertarian Party Convention convened over Memorial Day weekend, bringing together thousands of participants — from party delegates to true-believer activists — in the process of selecting the candidates who would go on to represent them during the general election. And, like any other gathering of promoters of a non-mainstream political ideology, there was no shortage of unconventional behavior during the event. There was a presidential candidate who suggested that the military hold bake ...

“We stand here in the middle of this city and force ourselves to imagine the moment the bomb fell. We force ourselves to feel the dread of children confused by what they see. We listen to a silent cry. We remember all the innocents killed across the arc of that terrible war and the wars that came before and the wars that would follow.” These were the words of President Barack Obama as he addressed an audience at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, making him the first president to visit the site...

~ Jim Hightower, speaking on behalf of Bernie Sanders Though Bernie Sanders is mathematically eliminated from winning the Democratic nomination, he should be commended for his presidential efforts. His grassroots campaign was sustained by a remarkable groundswell of small-time donors, dedicated volunteers, and enthusiastic supporters. Understandably, Sanders remains in the race to gather up as many delegates as possible to potentially influence the DNC platform. Losing the nomination doesn’t m...