Access Denied: Third party candidates excluded from debates

When most college students think of the 2012 Presidential Election, two candidates come to mind, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. The increased polarization of both parties in recent years has made the gap between the Republicans and the Democrats even wider. More often the ‘hard-core’ version of the views of the very liberal or the very conservative are being heard in the media and around the neighborhood.

Yet, there are other third-party candidates that do not get as much attention. Ever heard of Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode, and Justice Party nominee Rocky Anderson? If your answer is no, you’re not alone.

Political science professor Francis Graham Lee, Ph.D. said, “The rules in the United States are […] designed to make it very difficult, if not impossible, for a third party to play a role.”

Lee, alongside history professor Randall Miller, Ph.D. have taught an elections course for many years at St. Joe’s.

Miller described the situation in terms of biology. “Parties are like a species and the basic function is to keep reproducing yourself so the species can survive. You don’t want to let competitors in.”

Both professors explained that structurally, the United States does not have a system that works with many parties because “[the] winner takes all.” There is no proportional representation of multiple parties, but a single party that wins.

Yet, the third parties’ misrepresentation is perpetuated by the lack of media attention that these parties receive. As Miller described, “The problem just keeps compounding itself because you’re marginal, in fact, you don’t get much attention because you don’t have enough money, you don’t get in the ballots in many cases, you don’t get in the debates…you don’t even get what’s called free media.”

Miller described that when Obama or Romney go somewhere they get a lot of “free media, ”which means news articles or TV time that the press covers because it is newsworthy. Third-parties do not benefit from “free-media” and therefore have barely any public attention.

This past year, students may have felt the Libertarian Party’s presence stronger than ever because of Ron Paul, who was in the running to be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. Ron Paul appealed to the young vote because of his socially liberal and fiscally conservative policies. Recently, the Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson filed a lawsuit against the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) because of exclusions to the presidential debate.

According to the CDP, a third party candidate needs 15 percent in polls in order to be part of the Presidential Debates. Johnson claimed that in polls of just him and Obama he exceeded that 15 percent.

Lee said, “You have to have some minimum cut off, there’s no doubt the 15 percent is too high.”

He explained that if any of the third parties gets 5 percent in votes this year, in the next election they will get Federal Funding. “The Federal Funding Rules are looser than the presidential debate rules,” he said.

The Commission on Presidential Debates is comprised of only Republicans and Democrats.

“The system is rigged for the two parties to maintain themselves and against anybody else to crowd in and take up time, space and money,” said Miller. “Right now it’s their games, it’s their rules, so they can pretty much do what they want.”

Both professors agreed that one of the only things Democrats and Republicans agree on is keeping the ballot between both of their parties.

“Third-parties will never get as much attention as the Republican and Democratic parties, but the ideas that they have are usually ones that the main parties are avoiding,” said Miller.

Although many students may not remember (or know about it), there is an exception to the two-party debates within our lifetime. In 1992 and 1996, Henry Ross Perot ran for the presidency as the candidate of the Reform Party and exceeded the required 15 percent of polls to participate in the presidential debates. Perot had enough money to put himself out there, buying media time and campaigning by self-funding. In fact, in 1992 Perot was ahead of the polls before the first presidential debate. As both professors explained, Perot asserted issues on the deficit, which both Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush were avoiding. Eventually, the Democratic Party adopted some of his ideas and Clinton won.
“Some [third party] ideas do become part of the political parties,” said Miller.

Miller stated, “Ross Perot was able to pay a lot of money to get a lot of attention, which a lot of parties are unable to do.” He continued, “I think it’s unfortunate for us as a people that we don’t know more about, learn more about, and even want to know more about third parties, discover that there really are alternative views. It doesn’t work to our advantage.”

The two-party system has existed in the American politics since its early days, yet there are many ideas out there that both major parties dodge.
“For a lot of young people, one issue might be changing the American drug laws, particularly those involving marijuana, and that’s what they’re arguing for,” said Lee.

All third-party candidates, except Rocky Anderson, support the legalization of marijuana. Besides drug laws, the importance of the environment is another issue which third parties are discussing, especially the Green Party nominee, Jill Stein.

Lee said, “A lot of people thought it would be great if Mayor Bloomberg had run as an independent. First of all, he would have the money to self-fund. He probably would’ve gotten close to 15 percent, but even if he got 5 percent, it would’ve been nice to have him in the debate. Looking at both Obama and Romney and saying, ‘Neither of your numbers add up. This is craziness! Both of you are in gaga-land in terms of getting rid of the deficit.’ That would’ve been nice to have.”

Although they were not part of the televised presidential debates, there was a third party presidential debate on Oct. 23 moderated by Larry King and streamed live on the Internet. Issues ranged from drug laws to the military (including the issue on drones which Obama and Romney avoided) and an issue most pertinent to college students, student loans. The next third party presidential debate will be Nov. 5, and will stream on on www.freeandequal.org/live.

This article was originally published in The Hawk's website.