The biggest protection racket in this country is not run by organized crime, not by Wall Street, not by Congress. The biggest protection racket in this country is run by the Presidential Debate Commission (PDC), a private corporation formed in 1987 by the Democrat and Republican Parties.
The biggest current racketeers are Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean and Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Steele along with the Commission's Co-Chairs Paul Kirk and Frank Fahrenkipt, former Chairmen of the DNC and RNC respectively. Both Kirk and Fahrenkipt are special interest Washington lobbyists. Their intent is to assure voter information is limited, that free voter choice is curtailed.
The PDC was established with an implicit goal to limit debates to the two principal national parties to the exclusion of third party candidates and to assure that such debates by assuredly soft; so much so that Walter Cronkite labeled the process an "unconscionable fraud"- in which the debate "defies meaningful discourse"-. As to the relevance of third parties, it is noted that Abraham Lincoln was a third party candidate for the presidency. The Whigs and the Democrats were the two major parties existing at that time.
Prior to 1988, presidential debates were managed by the League of Women Voters. Their press release of October 3, 1988 states:
WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FROM FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
WASHINGTON, DC--The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter," League President Nancy M. Neuman said today.
"It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and honest answers to tough questions," Neuman said. "The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public."
Neuman said that the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns' agreement was negotiated "behind closed doors" and was presented to the League as "a done deal," she said, its 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation.
Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called "outrageous" the campaigns' demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues.
"The campaigns' agreement is a closed-door masterpiece," Neuman said. "Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates' organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and self-serving demands."
Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments."On the threshold of a new millennium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate," Neuman said. "Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century."
Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to "rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate."
Except for the three G's, gays, guns, and God, there is little distinction between the domestic and foreign policies of today's Democrat and Republican Parties. Since the election of President Clinton, the two parties have merged their interests to favor economic special interests. President Obama's campaign offered a vague but undefined change which has been transgressed by his cabinet appointments and his rhetoric since becoming President.
The American public cannot expect change as long as the Presidential Debates are run by racketeering gangsters. There is a crying need for these debates to be unfetteringly managed by a neutral organization such as the League of Women Voters or cancelled entirely. It is high time for the Justice Department to investigate the PDC's effort to limit free speech in defiance of the Constitution and the public's self interest.
