Open the Debates! Why antiwar and anti-bailout voters should demand an invitation for Cynthia McKinney

Cynthia McKinney and the Green Party have advanced a set of viable and genuinely progressive proposals for ending the country's economic crisis. Ms. McKinney, Mr. Nader, Mr. Barr, and Mr. Baldwin might very well reflect the opinions of the majority of the electorate on the bailout, but voters will never know it, since these candidates have been censored by the CPD and declared marginal and irrelevant by the major media.

In Canada, the TV networks initially excluded Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, from the September 10 debate before the October 14 national election. After Greens launched a 'Reclaim Democracy' campaign and Canadians throughout the country demanded Ms. May's inclusion, Ms. May was invited to participate.

Americans who value democracy and fair elections should demand inclusive debates too. Voters who favor bringing US troops home quickly from Iraq and Afghanistan, an end to imperial foreign policies, single-payer national health care, restoration of constitutional protections and election integrity, and other progressive agenda have a special interest in seeing Green candidates in the presidential debates in 2008 and in future elections.

Whether or not one intends to vote for a Green, Libertarian, independent, or any other candidate from outside of the two dominant parties, we all benefit from hearing their arguments. Throughout US history, alternative parties introduced and fought for ideas that we now consider indispensible: abolition of slavery, women's equality and suffrage, the eight-hour work day and other workers' rights and protections, constraints on corporate power, Social Security. In every case, the two-party political establishment initially fought these goals and tried to hinder the 'third parties' that promoted them. The only real democracy -- the only hope for America at the beginning of the 21st century -- is multiparty democracy.

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