Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeThird parties discriminated against
November 19, 2007 —
I'm sure a lot of you have been, at very least, glancing at the national news or taking a brief listen to a talk radio program to update yourself on the 2008 presidential race. There has been a significant amount of deliberation on this topic on campus. That said, you may already have a candidate or two in mind, or you may be the type that likes to wait until much later to back a particular hopeful.
Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, chances are you feel the American political system is fair and allows equal access for all its citizens. This is, in fact, the truth.
Unless, of course, you're a member of some wacko third party. In America, Greens, libertarians, socialists, and people of other political affiliation simply need not apply. A vote for these minor parties is a vote wasted.
The majority of the eligible voters - around 40 percent - are considered independents. Yet, every four years it seems close to 95 to 99 percent of eligible voters vote for either Republicans or Democrats, despite being affiliated with neither. Do they have no other options?
I would argue that yes, they do have other options, but the influence of these options is significantly limited due to a rigged system. Third parties are discriminated against by the Democratic and Republican legislatures, who have passed state laws requiring third parties to gather signatures on petitions or meet difficult deadlines in order to make it on the ballot in any given state. The Republicans and Democrats follow a much less demanding criteriato make it on a state ballot.
Some people argue that third parties don't have anything to offer as far as ideas go. On the contrary, the fact that they have ideas is the very reason for their downfall during election time. All a third party candidate has to do is adopt a position on a particular issue, allow that position to gain momentum, and then that policy stance will be stolen by a candidate from a major party. It's known as a "suicide mechanism."
How does this pertain to college students? Candidates won't take us seriously so long as the way to our votes is through Facebook. To them, we're nothing more than free votes.
Think about it: we've replaced protest signs with iPods and civil service with apathy. Major party candidates realize this. Instead of targeting issues we should be concerned with, they create a social networking page or to admit marijuana use so they can seem more on par with the values of our generation. They pander to our ignorance.
This being said, I think it's time we started looking elsewhere for leadership, because it's obvious the parties in power are too busy trying to prove how hip they are as opposed to trying to prove how qualified they are.