The Lens with Which We View This Election

I view the political landscape with an eye that sees Republicans and Democrats cooperating with each other and perpetuating many of the problems this society must solve in order to stop bigger problems from coming to fruition. 

The media also does not want to cover third party candidates and so people who vote do not think about them.

When third party candidates appear before voters’ eyes through random news snippets, a random person who is handing out fliers for a third party candidate, a letter to the editor in the newspaper, or on the ballot on Election Day, third parties are trivial and Americans know much work needs to be done in order for a third party candidate to be elected so Americans write off third party candidates. 

While some Americans can agree that third parties deserve attention so the discussion can be opened up, Americans wish to be careful and cautionary because if you give third party candidates just enough, they might steal votes from the candidate that has the best chance of winning.

Lastly, I predict third party candidates will collectively garner fifteen to twenty percent of the vote in this election. Between Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader, this will show one fifth of voters want real change, not just the so-called change we need or the change we can believe in. 

Baldwin and Barr are not candidates that uphold progressive values, but I welcome their presence because I believe they boost grassroots democracy in America as well as the belief that Americans must do more to take back our civil liberties.

All four already came together to support balancing the federal budget, bringing American troops home, protecting civil liberties and investigating the Federal Reserve. Should twenty percent of voters vote third party, this is what Americans should go to work on after November 4th (and more). 

On November 5th, work to institute instant run-off voting, enact better public financing laws for campaigns, eliminate the Commission of Presidential Debates (which would be replaced by a League of Women Voters-type entity that could coordinate open, free, and fair debates during election that third party candidates are allowed into), push for majority elections, pass new campaign laws to open up the media outlets so third party candidates receive coverage, and end ballot access obstructionism must begin and it must be started by all those that claim to be progressive or liberal.

Not only will organizing reveal how third party candidates are chronically victims of political bigotry and therefore increase American support for third parties but it will also allow for an end to “lesser of two evils” voting, which perpetuates the problems this nation faces. 

When progressives have a third option to go to, Democrats will fear losing progressives’ vote.

Democrats who used to have no problem with offering nothing to progressives because they knew they would not vote Republican will have to offer progressives or liberals something or else they might have to find a new career.

Organizing and working to enact these necessary reforms will be difficult. The change, no matter how vigorously we fight, will not come unless we fight with courage and moral fortitude. And we cannot expect all necessary reforms to come by 2012 (so expect another round of writing similar to this). 

But, just think---This is what progressives have been waiting for. Progressives have been saying they will vote for Obama and then go to work.

Progressives have not been saying they will vote for third party candidate who truly uphold progressive values and see what happens after Election Day but rather have decided that viability is more important than ideology. 

In closing, however you see this election understand that I push third parties because the election is fresh in your mind. It’s easier now to make the case for opening up the system to more voices and more choices than it will be months from now.

That said, onward to Election Day.

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