Now, for those of you reading, it may seem like I am talking out of both sides of my mouth. Let me clarify.
The Free and Equal debate tonight was a great thing for Americans because it put forth a format for debate that Americans should push the CPD to adopt. It also showed that wide-ranging discussion and good moderating in a presidential debate is possible.
However, Free and Equal was started by Christina Tobin. Christina Tobin is a Nader/Gonzalez campaign leader. She’s well-known for all her ballot access work and is to be commended for it. But, the debate was not organized by a party that was independent from either of the four third party campaigns.
The Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has more resources (in particular money) to put together something like this so it’s easy to understand why they are the campaign that made this happen.
I just hope that this isn’t the last third party debate in this election. I hope Free and Equal can right its wrongs by checking candidate availability, finding a third party to organize it, and get a moderator like Amy Goodman who isn’t publicly for either of the third party candidates.
I want to see another third party debate on C-SPAN so Americans can see once again what the debates could have been like, why third party candidates should be appreciated, and so Americans can, with four third party candidates in front of them, why Obama and McCain do not talk like either of the third party candidates.
An American calling into C-SPAN afterwards said, “It was the best debate I had seen so far.”
An Obama supporter called in to C-SPAN and said third parties “bring up relevant issues that the center parties cannot bring up with the kind of conviction or the clarity that the third parties can voice.” And she was glad that Nader has laid out a path for Obama. She ended saying, “Third parties are essential and I appreciate that they continue to do the work that they do.”
Would more Americans watching another third party debate amount to anything?
Would they still vote for the least worst afterwards? Would they start to vote their hopes and not their fears? I don’t know.
But, they would know that come 2012, if the two party system is still rotten (which presumably it will be), they need to be part organizing that will begin in 2010 to build up a third option in the 2012 presidential election, one that forces Democrats or Republicans to seriously campaign for progressive/liberal or conservative forces in America.
1 | 2
