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| quote: | Originally posted by Blake
... Voting 3rd party doesn't hurt. It just doesn't help either. |
Voting 3rd party would help to broaden the incredibly narrow scope of the debates. Nader and Buchannon were the only candidates asking any poignant questions.
| quote: | Buchanan took issue with the make-up of the current presidential debate commission, saying, "Every single member ... is a Republican or a Democrat. Not one member is a member of the Libertarian Party or the Reform Party or Green Party or the Constitution Party."
"The purpose of this debate commission," he claimed, "is to shut off real debate, to squelch true dissent, to segregate third parties to where they cannot compete and to control the White House in perpetuity for the two national existing parties."
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| quote: | Ron Crickenberger, political director of the Libertarian Party, agreed with Nader, saying, "The Debates Commission should offer voters a broad spectrum of legitimate candidates, instead of acting as kingmaker among a handful of establishment candidates."
"The lesson is clear: If we want more voters to participate in the political process, we have to open up the system and the debates to a wider array of legitimate candidates," said Crickenberger. "The future success of American democracy demands it."
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics...L20020218c.html
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| quote: | | ...Nader has repeatedly accused the CPD of being a deplorable, exclusionary tool of the two-party duopoly, performing an antidemocratic screening function in our system, and forcing excluded candidates to the sidelines in media attention and public appraisal. |
| quote: | The Commission on Presidential Debates was formed in 1987 to replace the non-partisan League of Women Voters, which included independent candidate John Anderson in the first 1980 presidential debate and prohibited the major party candidates from selecting the debate panelists in 1984. Frank Fahrenkopf, then chairman of the Republican National Committee and now the leading lobbyist for the gambling industry, and Paul Kirk, then chairman of the Democratic National Committee and now a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry, created The Commission on Presidential Debates.
Financed by Anheuser-Busch, Philip Morris and other multinational corporations, the Commission on Presidential Debates has excluded popular third-party candidates, most of whom are critical of the Big Business agenda. Although he received $29 million in public funds, captured 19 percent of the popular vote in the previous 1992 election, and 76 percent of eligible voters wanted him included, Ross Perot was excluded by the two parties from the 1996 presidential debates. Both Pat Buchanan, who collected over $12 million in federal matching funds, and Ralph Nader, who attracted the largest paid audiences during his campaign appearances, were excluded from the 2000 presidential debates, although in a national poll, 64 percent of eligible voters wanted them included.
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_04_16_02.html
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I don't wanna have to waste my vote on another Kerry just to spite the Bush family. 
