By
Cory Spiller
Whether or not you've decided to vote for one of the two third party candidates, Ralph Nader or Pat Buchanan, it's important to recognize their struggle. In this election, voting for a third party is a matter of principle. Nader supporters seem not to care as much about Nader as with their symbolic vote against the current two party system. Some Americans seems to say: "if it's going to shake up the system I'm for it." Third parties are purposefully excluded by the Democrats and Republicans because they threaten their power.
Debates are the best way for voters to observe the candidates and the issues they stand for. In the past, as many as 70 million people have watched the presidential debates. Often, it is the decisive event in a presidential campaign. So, if third party candidates can't get into the debates, their chances of competing in a national election are severely decreased. Nader and Buchanan were excluded from the debate because they did not receive 15 percent support in five national polls, a standard set by the Commission on Presidential debates.
But who is the Debate Commission? In their own words, they are: "a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization," that has sponsored every Presidential debate since 1988. However, that's not entirely true: the Debate Commission isn't nonpartisan, it's bipartisan. It may appear to be an official federal agency, when in fact it's a private organization run by the former leadership of the Republican and Democrat parties. They don't want third parties stealing their votes, so they set standards unrealistically high to ensure that third party candidates won't meet requirements.
Jesse Ventura is a rare example of a third party politician that was able to rival his Republican and Democratic opponents. He had a less than perfect reputation, but he had the opportunity to debate his opponents. Ventura walked into the debate polling around 10%-two months later he won the election with 37 percent of the vote.
Ross Perot was polling far under our current 15 percent standard early in the 1992 presidential race. When the debates began, he enjoyed only seven percent support. However, he got a chance to compete face-to-face with Bush and Clinton, and ended up receiving 18.9 percent of the national vote. He was lively, informative, and fearless, and, most importantly, he brought national interest to the debates. Each of the three debates between Clinton, Bush, and Perot, were watched by over 60 million people. The next year Clinton and Dole were watched by 46.1 million during the first debate, and only 36.3 million during the last debate, Gore and Bush did little better this year. Third party candidates are good for debates. They bring up issues that Republicans and Democrats are scared of, and they attract attention to national politics.
The Debate Commission should be eliminated. The next organization should be funded by the government, not the corporations that sway Commission decisions. We should have more debates with more candidates. The requirement for entry into the debates should be dropped from 15 percent to 3 percent, for the first two debates. Raise it to ten percent for the next two, and then have a final debate with candidates who have receive 15 percent in national polls. Third parties would no longer be bullied out of the debates by the Republicans and Democrats. If we want to keep telling people we're a democracy, then let's hear from everyone.
