Focusing on two-party system distorts political process
By Brian Kernan
In the month before the 1996 presidential election, "The Simpsons" aired an episode titled "Citizen Kang."
The show was a political satire in which two aliens abduct President Bill Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole and proceed to take on their forms to ensure that one of them is elected president. When Homer Simpson reveals the identities of the two disguised aliens in the middle of a debate on the night before the election, the horrified audience is informed that they need to vote for one of the candidates.
When one man states that he will vote for a third party, he is told that he may as well throw his vote away.
This episode seems especially relevant as America prepares for its 56th presidential election in the middle of a financial crisis and two wars.
While I'm certainly not saying that Sen. McCain or Sen. Obama are aliens in disguise, the American attitude toward third-party candidates illustrates a major problem in American politics.
The monopoly that Republicans and Democrats hold on the political process constricts political dialogue in the United States. There are obvious differences between McCain and Obama, but it is impossible for these two to represent all of America's political diversity.
Many American voters today feel they are voting for the lesser of two evils, forgetting that there are alternatives outside the constructed mainstream.
I'm going third party this year. Specifically, I'm supporting the Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr, although his record is by no means completely and traditionally Libertarian.
As the Republican representative of Georgia's 7th District, Barr was once described as one of the most conservative members of Congress.
During this time, he was a staunch supporter of the War on Drugs, which Libertarians generally view as a waste of money. In an act of Libertarian blasphemy, he voted for the Iraq Resolution and the Patriot Act.
Given this history, Barr's turnaround has been questioned by Libertarians. But since leaving the Republican Party during the 2004 presidential election, he has worked to end the Iraq War and has become a vocal opponent of the Patriot Act.
Though he has always advocated the elimination of excessive government and wasteful spending, in the years since his exit from the Republican Party, he has gone so far as to lobby for the Marijuana Policy Project, an organization he was at almost constant odds with during the 1990s.
Barr is an ardent defender of the Constitution, and he stresses government non-Ã intervention. Like nearly all Libertarians, he believes that America should not act as world police and that military intervention in foreign countries creates problems for America in the long run.
He also argues that the Federal Reserve is an unaccountable organization whose control over the money supply and intervention in the economy can create financial crises.
A Zogby Poll released on Aug. 15, 2008 concluded that 55 percent of Democrats and Republicans want Barr to be included in the presidential debates. Not surprisingly, nearly 70 percent of Independents also indicated they wanted to see him included.
Ross Perot was invited to the 1992 debates when he was receiving 7-9 percent of the vote in nationwide polls. The latest polls have Barr at 6 percent.
America will probably always have a two-party system. But in an ideal system, our major debates would include the voices of people representing the full spectrum of American political thought. Yet the political elite of both parties tend to dislike voices that distract from their agendas.
For evidence, look at the Republican Party's treatment of Ron Paul or the Democratic Party's treatment of Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich.
As the news media covers the fight between Democrats and Republicans, there is another fight going on between elitism and pluralism.
Thomas R. Dye, professor of political science at Florida State University, has theorized that all political systems eventually evolve into oligarchy.
Under oligarchy, actual differences between political opponents are small, and there is a strict limit placed on what sort of issues enter the political discourse.
When Republicans and Democrats control the political verbal exchange and turn the American people into spectators, the public loses its voice.
Third parties across the political spectrum should not be dismissed because they represent a resistance to elitism.
Luckily our two main candidates represent better ideas than the aliens on "The Simpsons."
Still, we should remember that there are other options out there.
Brian Kernan is a copy editor for The Santa Clara and a senior history and economics major.Ã