Turn on any TV, open any newspaper or magazine, open most any webpage, and you’ll find yourself  flooded by advertisements telling you who to not vote for. These ads become increasingly uglier the closer we get to Election Day, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one frustrated by the tunnel-vision focus on the Republican and the Democratic candidates.

Last I checked, there are other candidates. But most of us aren’t even aware of these other parties, because all we ever see or hear about are the two mainstream candidates.

Which makes us feel as though there really isn’t a choice. Especially now, and why is this? Why do I feel that my only option is between two people I’d really rather not vote for? Why do I feel conflicted, thinking that writing in Bernie Sanders is really just throwing my vote away? Money. The Republicans and the Democrats have a lot of money to spend on exposure, much more than those members of the third party. And that needs to stop.

I would change many things about our political system, but one of the first would be to eliminate campaign funding by special interest groups. I’d also go one step further and forbid candidates to fund their own campaigns.

Anyone vying for an elected position (Student Body President, Grand Poohbah of the Moose Lodge, what have you) should all start on an even playing field.

If this were some middle- school track race, I wouldn’t be allowed to wear a jet pack, or take any substance to make me run really, really fast (and I probably couldn’t anyway, as I’m nine feet tall – wind resistance, folks, is a drag).

And yet, as noted by OpenSecrets.org, the amount of money contributed by super PACs to the candidates to date is $526 million. Only $530 thousand of that total went to any of the third party candidates, specifically Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party (Jill Stein: $0). This isn’t even counting the money that Donald Trump may or may not be contributing to his own campaign. Politifact states that, as of the end of 2015, Trump’s contributions were 66.2% self-funded.

All this money, to me, creates an unfair advantage. If all we’re aware of, through marketing campaigns and the money fueling it, are the two richest candidates – how can we possibly come to a full understanding of our options?

More money means more advertising capital, means more exposure, means a wider audience, and means more votes. And more votes equals a win. Even if both mainstream parties look like the Antichrist.

If all the presidential candidates started off at zero, and were forced to go about things like Bernie Sanders continually proclaimed in his ads and on his website (“Paid for by Bernie 2016: Not the Billionaires”), we might be better able to understand everyone, not just Person R and Person D, and who these people truly are.

Anyone who runs for president of this country should not be allowed to received monies from corporations, special interest groups, “charitable” organizations that are actually a money laundering front for the Lizard People in a different, morally ambiguous country.

They also should not be able to personally fund their campaigns. Private citizens should be contributing to the candidates, and private citizens only. Granted, the rich guy in the Hamptons with the three private jets and the five Rolls Royces could cut a check for a cool million to Donald Trump, and Jill Stein still just gets a $2 bill from the hard-working member of the Faceless Working Poor – however, Trump would have just gotten the check; he wouldn’t have also received the funding from special interests, and however much he’s really been giving to his own campaign. His propaganda machine would then be limited.

I view this gluttony of “crooked” money as a cheat. The Republicans and the Democrats are holding all the media outlets hostage, and the voices of the hardscrabble third party candidates cannot be heard. Who knows, maybe one of these other candidates is actually ideal?

Maybe they’re just as evil as the mainstream candidates and this is all a sign of the rapidly approaching End of Days (I know I’m going to be wearing my “My Little Ponies of the Apocalypse” shirt on Election Day, that’s all I’m saying…).