Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Real Change We Can Believe In

Great read from Radley Balko of Reason on how the Republicrats and Demicans are making it more and more difficult for a third party to have any chance in government. This part really blew my mind about Libertarian candidate Bob Barr not appearing on the Texas ballot:

Meanwhile, in Texas, the tables were turned. Both the Republican and Democratic parties somehow missed that state's deadline to include Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on the Texas ballot. Barr's campaign sued, noting the equal protection problems with allowing the two major parties to skirt campaign rules while holding third party candidates to the letter of the law. Barr was right—Obama and McCain should have been kept off the Texas ballot. But Barr's suit was dismissed by the Texas Supreme Court without comment. Apparently, the Democratic and Republican parties are, to borrow a now-tired phrase, "too big to fail." They're allowed to break the rules.
Also, don't get me started on Prop 8.

3 comments:

The Enlightened Citizen said...

It's hard enough to get anything done in Congress with just two parties. Imagine a third mouth! This is third parties in America: http://i35.tinypic.com/15s57c4.jpg

Eric said...

I'll agree there are pros and cons to a two party system, I would just like to see a more fair system that would allow third parties a chance.

And that pic made me want to call Extreme Makeover Campaign Edition and help old RP out.

The Enlightened Citizen said...

Another reason third parties struggle today is because of how uninformed American voters tend to be. Unless a third party candidate is some sort of celebrity or recognized name, people otherwise use the labels "Republican" and "Democrat" as indicators of their ideals. I recently blogged about this but I'm sure you read it: http://castawayre.blogspot.com/2008/11/american-voter.html