For as long as any of us can remember, the American political climate has been dominated by two parties. Democrats and Republicans have been around for more than one hundred fifty years, constantly shifting and changing their platforms, and any party that isn’t annexed, is quickly beaten into submission.

Whenever a candidate has a real platform, and the money to execute it, they are forced to align with donkeys or elephants to have any real chance at a presidency. But, obviously, in a democratic system having to submit yourself to the boundaries of a partisan group makes it impossible for an objectively fair campaign and election process.

Because of the exclusivity of the American political system, truly independent candidates are deprived of any real opportunity to prove their worth as candidates. This is demonstrative of a deeper problem; a diseased system too corrupt to function, except on the most superficial levels.

This has been generally true for the better part of a hundred years, but with the signing of Citizens United, and the heralding of the Super PAC, it has become impossible for anybody without hundreds of millions of dollars, and the “right connections” to make any sort of real impact.

In a system so far gone, how do we begin to right the ship?

Ideally, we collectively forego watching partisan televised media such as Fox News, CNN and MSNBC but billion dollar companies are difficult to silence.

Media outlets, lobbyists, and shifty politicians have convinced the American voter base that any vote for a truly independent candidate is a waste, or in some cases, a faux pas that impedes establishment nominees, but in a true democracy this cannot be true.

The major “news” providers have their audiences in an unbreakable thrall and the only way to chip away at that bedrock is for discerning citizens like those who read blogs like this, to inform themselves and refuse to vote along preordained party lines.

As long as these establishment organizations have a death grip on the throat of American politics, there can be no real justification for supporting them, or the parties that they have aligned with. Every checkmark next to a democratic or republican name is the hallmark of another voter who has given up on change.

If an individual’s contribution to his or her government is objectively less than that of any other citizen in that country, that country does not have a functional democracy. Democrats and republicans systematically prevent lay citizens from making meaningful contributions to government, and the only way to fight that system is to stop voting for those people.

We are led to believe that if we don’t vote for Hillary then we let Trump win, if we don’t vote for Trump we let the socialists take over, and if we don’t vote for Bernie we’re amoral.

But I implore you, don’t vote for any of them.

Don’t vote for a democrat.

Don’t vote for a republican.

Don’t vote for an “independent” who is running under a republican or democratic flag.

Vote for a real independent candidate. Vote for Art Drew and together we can find a real resolution to an electoral system that is too easily corrupted and manipulated.