general election presidential debates are the \’Superbowl of Politics,\’\” said George Farah, founder and executive director of Open Debates. \”And if history is any guide, Senator John Kerry and President George W. Bush will participate in debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), which claims to have \’no relationship with any political party or candidate.\’ But the CPD substantially undermines voter education by deceptively awarding control of the presidential debates to the Republican and Democratic nominees.\”
GEORGE FARAH
Farah is author of the new book No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Candidates Secretly Control the Presidential Debates and a member of the newly-formed Citizens\’ Debate Commission. Tuesday the Christian Science Monitor published an oped by Farah entitled \”Save \’Genuine\’ Presidential Debates\” [see: www.commondreams.org/views04/0810-04.htm]. Today, he noted the following:
* \”The CPD was created by the Republican and Democratic parties for the Republican and Democratic parties. In 1986, the two parties\’ national committees ratified an agreement \’to take over the presidential debates.\’ Eighteen months later, then-Republican Party chair Frank Fahrenkopf and then-Democratic Party chair Paul Kirk incorporated the CPD, which immediately seized control of the debates from the League of Women Voters. Mr. Kirk and Mr. Fahrenkopf — now the nation\’s leading gambling lobbyist — are still co-chairs of the debate commission.\”
* \”Every four years, the CPD submits to the demands of the Democratic and Republican candidates. Behind closed-doors, negotiators for the major party nominees jointly draft secret debate contracts that dictate precisely how the debates will be run — from who gets to participate, to who will ask the questions, to the temperature in the auditoriums. Masquerading as a nonpartisan sponsor, the CPD obediently implements and conceals the debate contracts, shielding the candidates from public criticism.\”
* \”Such deceptive major party control severely harms our democracy. Candidates that voters want to see are often excluded; issues the American people want to hear about are often ignored; the debates have been reduced to a series of glorified bipartisan news conferences, in which the candidates merely exchange memorized soundbites; and debate viewership has plummeted, with 25 million fewer people watching the 2000 presidential debates than watching the 1992 presidential debates.\”
* \”A Citizens\’ Debate Commission has been created to improve the presidential debates. Seventeen national civic leaders from the left, center and right of the political spectrum formed the Citizens\’ Debate Commission, including former Ambassador to the United Nations Alan Keyes, former independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson, Chellie Pingree of Common Cause, former U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan, TransAfrica Forum founder Randall Robinson, Heritage Foundation co-founder Paul Weyrich, and Jehmu Green of Rock the Vote. The Citizens\’ Debate Commission, which has been backed by major newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, aspires to host future presidential debates that serve the American people first, not political parties.\”
Further information:
OpenDebates.org
Watch video of George Farah on C-Span\’s “Washington Journal”
PDF copy of the 1996 Memorandum of Understanding
Los Angeles Times editorial in support of the Citizens\’ Debate Commission
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 332-5055; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Nader: Open the Debates for Third Party Candidates Like Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney and Me
The broadcasts of the presidential debates this year will reach 60 million or more Americans. The array of candidates running includes two former members of Congress—Libertarian Bob Barr and Green Cynthia McKinney—as well as me, but viewers will see only two choices: a Democrat and a Republican. The rest of us are not invited.
Few voters likely know that the debate sponsor, the Commission on Presidential Debates, was created in 1987 by the two parties. Don't be fooled by its claim that its goal is to provide "the best possible information to viewers and listeners." Its purpose is to give the parties cover when they bar other legitimate candidates from debating.
Ross Perot got in the debates in 1992 even though he was polling below 10 percent. Afterwards, the two parties retaliated, hiking up the threshold for entry to 15 percent, a Catch-22 level of support that is almost impossible for any third-party candidate to reach without first getting in the debates.
Walter Cronkite called the commission's debates an "unconscionable fraud." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg calls them a "mockery." The League of Women Voters called them "campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity, and honest answers to tough questions." A genuinely nonpartisan, civic organization, the league used to sponsor the debates but quit in disgust in 1988, saying: "The league has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."
In a 2004 Zogby poll, 57 percent of Americans said that third parties should be included in the debates. My campaign is on the ballot in 45 states and is polling at 6 percent nationally. I have earned a podium in the debates and have something to contribute to the political discussion.
The two parties want to marginalize our campaigns, but our views are not marginal. Most Americans want to end the Iraq war, want true single-payer healthcare, their pension rights upheld, their privacy protected, a living wage, strong enforcement against corporate crimes and frauds, and the Bush/Cheney administration held accountable for its serial violations of law. Obama and McCain refuse to support these positions. I support them all, and my inclusion would ensure the debates are more than an antidote for insomnia.
Others argue that including third-party candidates in debates would crowd the field, making it confusing for voters. They must have missed the first primary debates where eight to 10 people shared the stage.
A proposal. Given the huge barriers to getting on state ballots, a fair and manageable standard would be that anyone on enough ballots to have a theoretical chance to win should be allowed in the debates—six candidates this year. I challenge the two parties to take a baby step: In the coming weeks, a third-party debate is set to take place. Will McCain and Obama allow the winner, as voted by viewers, into their last debate?
The abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, Social Security, fair labor stand-ards, and protection of farmers were all first championed by third parties. The mainstream ultimately adopted these "marginal" issues, and we are better for it. The legacy of third-party candidates in American history is not that of "spoilers" but of visionaries.
Those who say that third parties cannot win are wrong. Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura won the 1998 Minnesota governor's race after appearing in the debates. "If you are allowed in the debates, the candidate that no one gives a chance to, lo and behold, can win," Ventura said. My running mate, Matt Gonzalez, polled at 6 percent before being included in the 2003 San Francisco mayoral debates. He ended up with 47 percent of the vote.
In 2002, an AP poll found that 1 in 3 people would consider voting for me if they thought I could win. The main obstacle to people voting for me, then, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Putting me on the same stage with the other candidates would turn this prophecy on its head.
Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate, lawyer, author, and founder of public-interest groups, is running for president.
Sean Penn Speech Open the Debates Part Two
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x76j5j_sean-penn-speech-open-the-debates-p_webcam
Cindy Sheehan at Open The Debates Rally at DNC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r-Zqy6mr1k
Jesse Ventura "We Live In A 2 Party Dictatorship!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV784UEGWHY
The Two Party Dictatorship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJnBI_ifSK0
Ralph Nader: U.S. is a two party dictatorship
http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/09/ralph-nader-u-s-is-a-two-party-dictatorship/
America Is “A Two-Party Dictatorship Unless You’re Worth Billions of Dollars” – Ralph Nader on Fox News
A little bit of truth slips through American television sets, coming from Fox News airwaves no less. Think what you want about Ralph Nader, he has been proven right about just about everything he has been saying for decades now. And he is 100% right in what he says here; he is not going to run again “because it’s a two-party dictatorship unless you are worth billions of dollars to overcome all the obstacles, harassment and all the state laws.” That, in one brief sentence, is why we need a revolution in this country.
Quote is at the 6:19 mark:
