In the course of the electoral history of the United States, there have been periods when a de facto two-party system has dominated. This allowed entrenched interests—whether the slave economy of the early 19th century, the robber barons of the Gilded Age or the Wall Street triumvalists of the 1920s—to consolidate their power over the political system, buying influence in both parties and thwarting any meaningful change to the status quo.

But significant changes have come about in our history, and the most significant of them have been preceded by periods of increased third-party organizing by average citizens to challenge that power.

In the 1850s, when the moral and economic question of slavery hung over the country, many found it intolerable that neither main party was willing to take a stand against it. And so the Republican Party was formed, which in 1860 took power with about 30 percent of the vote. The Civil War followed and formal slavery was ended in America.

Even when these third parties failed to take power, their influence altered the political landscape, leading to many of the changes they were seeking. In 1892, the Populists lost with about 9 percent of the vote—but in failing, the party initiated the Progressive Era, in which monopolistic and anti-labor practices were challenged. In 1924, the Progressive Party was formed ad hoc to challenge two pro-Wall Street candidates. They lost with about 16 percent of the vote, but solidified the coalition that came to power eight years later to implement the New Deal reforms of the 1930s.

Today, moral and economic dysfunction have again come to oppress us. Both of the mainstream candidates in this year’s race are competing to entice hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from the wealthiest individuals and corporations, thus ensuring continuing control of our political system to serve the needs of this small group of people. All while our health care system remains an international disgrace; average workers live on the margins of survival, steeped in debt; while the poor are trapped with an abysmal $7.25-an-hour minimum wage.

More ominously, neither the Republican nor Democratic candidates have the moral character needed to stand up against genocide, which we currently sponsor through Israel’s war on Gaza. It will continue if either is elected. The candidates lack even the strategic understanding that leading the country to embrace an openly fascist position will mean either a greatly diminished position for America in the world, or a conflagration that could potentially end the world.

This is the moment in history when free people need to stand up and stop this infernal drift toward destruction. Jill Stein of the Green Party is the only candidate that represents an opposition to oligarchy and the apocalypse-directed war machine. Go to jillstein2024.com to learn more about her positions.

Republicans and Democrats will tell you that if you don’t vote for their candidate, then the other side will win and that will be the worst thing possible. But let’s be frank: these two parties have had power for decades, alternating between them like clockwork. Although there have been greater or lesser differences—on fundamental issues of war and its attendant expenses, on inequality, on the corruption of the political system, with its outlandish dependence on bribery to decide policy—they march in lockstep. 

If either party had intended to make changes on these issues, why haven’t they done so? No matter how badly either of them perform, neither represents a satisfactory alternative to the other.

Many people have been groomed to believe that all dissident third parties should be dismissed out of hand as spoilers. But as we have shown, our political history has been a series of spoilings, red lines that people have refused to be dragged across. The people from the Green Party USA have courageously over decades kept a spot open on our ballots, so that now, in a moment of crisis, the people have a means to take charge of their own fate.

In New York, the Democrats have used their power over government to keep Jill Stein off the ballot, with the apparent belief that if they degrade democracy enough it will force people to vote for them. While Jill will appear on the ballot in the vast majority of states, in New York voters will have to take the extra step of writing her name in, calling into question the legitimacy of the entire election.

Our government has become a criminal enterprise. It is slaughtering innocent civilians on an industrial scale; dismantling our rights of free speech, assembly and free and fair elections; and blocking the way to economic justice. A vote for Democrats or Republicans is a vote to keep the whole mess going—a truly wasted vote. Only a vote for Jill Stein represents a tangible step toward democracy and fundamental morality.

Doug Rogers is a musician, composer and carpenter who lives in Long Eddy, NY.