John Oliver vets Jill Stein and Gary Johnson like they are 'legitimate potential presidents'

John Oliver tackles Jill Stein, Gary Johnson
(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

"This election has now achieved a dubious distinction," John Oliver sighed on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are among the most disliked presidential candidates in history, so it is hardly surprising that some are seeking an alternative." Luckily, there are a lot of third-party options out there, he said, naming people you've surely never heard of — Joe Exotic 2016!? — plus Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Jill Stein (Green Party). More than a third of young voters say they are considering voting for Johnson or Stein, Oliver said, "so they are worth taking seriously." So he does.

"Before we go any further, we should probably address the common critique that third-party candidates can siphon off votes and potentially wind up electing an ideological opponent," Oliver said. "And there is some historical precedent for that, from Teddy Roosevelt's 1912 run, which arguably helped to elect Democrat Woodrow Wilson, to Ralph Nader in 2000 winning nearly 100,000 votes in Florida, a state which Al Gore famously lost by just 537." Third parties "are a little touchy about that whole 'spoiler' attack," he noted, and "just dismissing third-party candidates as spoilers shuts down debate. And while the argument that the only thing that stops Trump is a vote for Hillary Clinton is a powerful one, so is the argument that people should vote for the candidate who most closely shares their values. So let's vet these candidates not as spoilers or as protest votes but as legitimate potential presidents."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.