'Last Week Tonight's Third Parties Segment Vets The *Other* Candidates On The 2016 Ballot

On Sunday night's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver dedicated his entire show to covering the 2016 election. Or as he calls it, "Lice on Rats on a Horse Corpse on Fire 2016." The major issue facing many young voters this election appears to be that nobody is terribly excited about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. As many as 30% of young voters are considering voting for a third party. Therefore John Oliver decided to take a closer look at some of the other people running for president. Last Week Tonight's third parties segment vetted the other candidates on the 2016 ballot. They're key proposals crumble under the slightest scrutiny, Oliver pointed out.

While Oliver first pointed out some of the most hilarious third party candidates, including Joe Exotic who is totally broke and owns his own tiger farm, he spent most of his time discussing the two that have the biggest followings; Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party's Jill Stein. While on the face of things, Oliver points out, both sound great, once you take a closer look, neither stand up to any real criticism. Johnson has a tax plan that even he can't defend and Stein consistently panders to conspiracy theorists and doesn't appear to know how government works.

Stein, for example, has run on a campaign of canceling student debt, which Oliver likens to her version of Donald Trump's border wall. While on the face of it, getting rid of student debt sounds like a great idea (one that I would personally benefit from) Oliver is quick to mention also that it is wildly impracticable and would essentially require us to print enough currency to pay for it, which is not only illegal, but would have disastrous consequences, for obvious reasons.

As for Johnson, he has some good points too. For example, it's understandable that he reacts angrily when he is called a spoiler candidate. In a clip he's shown saying, "We're giving people the chance to vote for something rather than the lesser of two evils." Unfortunately, it's actually choosing to vote for the lesser of four evils. The tax plan Johnson is running on, which involves a simple hike in sales tax, is so unfeasible that not even he can defend it.

Unfortunately, no one will probably be jumping for joy on their way out of the voting booth. But on the bright side, it's always fun to hear John Oliver's take on it.