How to get the third party vote out? First step: abolish the CPD.Apr 20 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line As long as the CPD is around, we will continue to be forced to choose between awful candidates.
So yes, another election year is upon us. And of course, we now find ourselves faced with the challenge of choosing a candidate to vote for come November 8th. Of course, we all know about the big two monkeys in the main race. Of course, I'm referring to George W Bush and John Kerry. Of course, we all know about Ralph Nader, due to his infamous post-election status in 200 as the man who may have "helped Bush win". But are these the only choices? Thankfully no. The problem is, many Americans aren't aware of other possibilities in elections. Most people think it's a choice between Bush and Kerry with no other options. Or those who are aware of third party candidates (Independents, Libertarians, Natural Law Candidates, Constitution Party candidates etc) immediately dismiss the idea of voting for them with the comment "It's a wasted vote. They stand no chance of winning". Well part of the reason why the third party candidates keep losing is because it is hard for them to get the message out. I wonder: How many people would remain members of their respective parties if they knew there are fresh alternatives out there. The sad truth is probably not many, since knee-jerk party allegiance is a major problem in voting today. However, there should be more options for third-party candidates to get their message out. One such way is through the presidential debates. However, that is where one of their main hurdles lies. The hurdle is of course the Commission On Presidential Debates (CPD). Both the Republican and Democratic parties control this commission and it exists for mainly one purpose: Keeping everyone else out. How does it do this you ask? Well it has typically been chilly towards the idea of allowing outside candidates into the debates since the inception of the commission in 1987. It did open up and allow Ross Perot into the 1992 debates. But its most notorious strong-arm tactic came in 2000. That year, the CPD passed a rule barring any candidate from the debates that didn't have 15% poll support or more. This kept Ralph Nader and Reform Party Candidate Pat Buchanan as well as Libertarian Harry Browne, Natural Law candidate John Hagelin and Constitution Party Candidate Howard Phillips all out of the debates, in spite of polls that showed that many Americans wanted them to be allowed to participate. Why does the CPD want to keep third-party candidates out? Refer to my earlier paragraph where I noted that the commission is a fully owned subsidiary of the two major parties. From there, it should be obvious to anyone reading this. If a third party candidate gets into the debates, he/she stands the chance of moving from being a dark horse to being a viable contender in the election. This poses a real threat to the dominance of the political scene by Republicans and Democrats. Which is a roundabout way of saying that the CPD was formed as a means of ensuring that mediocre candidates are the ones getting elected to public office. I'm pretty sure you're steaming mad by now. As well you should be. The big problem with the CPD is that it goes against the very American ideal of self-government. It does this by not allowing Americans to see ALL the choices. Considering that (unfortunately) most Americans rely on the TV to get info about presidential candidates, it's no wonder the chimps ALWAYS end up running the zoo. How do we get the chimps back into the chimp cages you ask? It's not going to be easy. It will take lots of hard work to inform the American public about the much better choices out there. The first step is fairly obvious: The CPD must go. It's not a legitimate government agency. It's a program designed to set us on the road toward a totalitarian state if we're not careful. I recommend visiting the following website to find out more about this outrage: http://www.debatethis.org/ And here are some sites you should visit for third parties: http://www.lp.org/-The Libertarian Party http://www.natural-law.org-Natural Law Party http://www.constitutionparty.com-The Constitution Party http://www.gp.org-Green Party http://www.reformparty.org And for more info on political parties go to: http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/U_S__Government/Politics/Parties  |
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