Thursday, September 30, 2004More on the debatesDemocracy Now disucsses how the presidential debates are structured: They hand the document to an organization called the Commission on Presidential Debates which obediently implements every stipulation of the contract. Why? Because the commission, which masquerades as a non-partisan sponsor was created by the Republican and Democratic parties for the Republican and Democratic parties. The commission was created in 1986 after the parties ratified an agreement to “take over the presidential debates.” And how excluding third party candidates hinders our democracy: It’s an extraordinarily difficult place to be as a third party challenger in the United States of America, which is a shame because third party candidates have raised crucial issues that have been co-opted by the major parties. They raise the issue, they attract popular support, and the major parties steal them. Third party candidates are responsible for the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, public schools, public power, minimum wage, direct election of Senators, Social Security, unemployment compensation, the child labor laws. The list goes on and on. And when we exclude these individuals, particularly when a majority of eligible voters want to see them, from the most important public forums of the American people, you are also excluding their groundbreaking issue and preventing them from breaking the bipartisan conspiracy of silence on certain critical issues... posted by chris at 5:33 PM ------------------ |
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