I don't know about you, but it seems very sad to me that in our country, we really only have a two-party system, and don't give any credence whatsoever to the other third party and independent candidates running for president in our country. As a result, our elections are not as much about choosing the best person to be president, and become more of "I'd rather have you be president than that other guy." I mean, in Canada, they have five major political parties, four of which have a significant number of seats in their legislature. Yet we seem to be stuck in this rut of only having two parties to viably choose from to determine who should run our country.
Unless something weird happens in the next day or two, the first presidential debate will be held this Friday, followed by two more on October 7 and 15, and a vice presidential debate on October 2. But in those debates, you'll only see two people speaking into the camera, when there are a number of other strong third party candidates. And so, I'm going to go ahead and give you a brief introduction to the top four third-party candidates (listed in no particular order) that you won't see speaking during the debates.
Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate from Connecticut best remembered as the Green Party candidate in 2000. This is the fifth presidential election in a row he is running in, and the third run on a national level. He is running as an independent, although he is listed on the ballot in some states as the nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party. He is 74 years old, two years older than John McCain. According to his website, his campaign issues include supporting single payer national health insurance, reversing U.S. policy in the Middle East, cutting the "huge, bloated, wasteful" military budget, saying no to nuclear power and supporting solar energy first, adopting a carbon pollution tax, and many others. His vice presidential running mate is Matt Gonzalez of Calfornia, a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and a 2003 candidate for mayor of San Francisco.
Bob Barr, a former federal prosecutor and former Congressman from Georgia, is the Libertarian Party's nominee for president. He is 59 years old, and attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. According to his website, his campaign issues include drastically reducing federal spending, eliminating regulatory barriers that inhibit private philanthropy (charity), eliminating restrictions on energy production and supporting the free-market system, limiting the powers of the federal government concerning privacy and surveillance, ending the Iraq War and other foreign intervention by closing foreign bases, eliminating the Department of Education and other unnecessary federal departments, and others. His vice presidential running mate is Wayne Allyn Root, a TV producer and best-selling author from Nevada.
Charles "Chuck" Baldwin, a pastor and radio host from Florida, is the Constitution Party's nominee for president. He is 56 years old, and has been a longstanding critic of George W. Bush. According to his website, his campaign issues include disbanding the Department of Education, protecting the Second Amendment, opposing abortion, opposing foreign ownership of U.S. public property, ending funding for the United Nations, ensuring a strong national defense, and others. His vice presidential running mate is Darrell Castle, an activist and attorney from Tennessee.
Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia, is the Green Party's nominee for president. She is 53 years old. According to her website, her campaign issues include ensuring a system of free and fair elections; rights to education, health care, housing, living wages and freedom from racism, sexism, etc.; implementation of an economic policy providing an opportunity for every family to have gainful employment at a guaranteed income; a decent minimum wage; reparations for African Americans; ending the war; supporting an environmental protection policy; and many others. Her vice presidential running mate is Rosa Clemente, a community organizer and independent journalist from New York.
If you want to learn a bit more about those candidates whom the mainstream media is ignoring, you can check out their websites, or check out this interesting (though somewhat incomplete) Wikipedia article comparing the presidential candidates.
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Well the fact of the matter is that change like this is slow and it isn't going to be like a bunch of parties will suddenly get more supporters at the same time. Therefore, the two party system is kind of in a dead lock because it won't just be an explosion, it is going to be a slow process with one party appearing at a time. However, whenever there is a third party, it tends to uneven the playing field. For example, nadar was an insignificant independent however, even his small number of votes hurt the democratic party and lost them the election. Then afterward, those who supported the Green Party were probably thinking that is was a mistake because they had to deal with Bush and would then go back to voting democratic because supporting the Green party was hopeless. Therefore, in order for a third party to form, it would probably need to take supporters from both sides equally so that the balance of power isn't upset
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