Greens & Libertarians To File Suit To Be Included In Debates

Green Party and Libertarian Party beliefs and policies are miles apart -- but they both share one thing. They are ignored by the powers that be when an election season rolls around. Both the media and the Commission on Presidential Debates ignore the Green and Libertarian Party candidates. They don't give them any media coverage and don't allow them to participate in candidate debates.

This effectively shuts them out of the political process by giving voters the impression that they must choose between one of the two major parties (Democrats or Republicans). And they do this in spite of the fact that both the Greens and Libertarians have qualified for enough state ballots to theoretically have a chance of winning enough electoral votes to win the presidency.

To say this is unfair is a huge understatement -- it is un-American and anti-democratic. And it makes our government less responsive to the will of the people than in most other democratic countries (where a multitude of parties are given equal access to the electoral process).

I'm not saying that every tiny party or splinter group should get equal access (although an argument can be made for that). But any party that qualifies for the state ballot should get equal media coverage -- and any party that gets on enough state ballots to theoretically get 270 electoral votes for the presidency, should get equal coverage from the media and should be invited to participate fully in all presidential debates.

Both the Green Party and the Libertarian Party currently qualify for full inclusion in the political process. While their views may not currently represent the views of a majority of Americans, the same can be said many times of both major parties -- and the Greens and Libertarians deserve to be able to get their beliefs and policies before the American electorate. It would make our democracy more inclusive, and I believe it would enhance the rather pitiful voter participation in this country.

And it looks like both the Greens and Libertarians are tired of being excluded. They have joined forces to file suit to be included in the presidential debates. Here is how the website of Our American Initiative describes the proposed action:

The 2012 presidential and vice-presidential nominees of both the Libertarian and Green parties are joining forces to challenge the Commission on Presidential Debates and its use of selection criteria that limit participation in general election presidential debates to the Republican and Democratic nominees.

The Our America Initiative, a non-profit advocacy organization, is coordinating the legal challenge. In addition to announcing the plaintiffs in the legal action, Senior Advisor for Our America Initiative, Ron Nielson, also announced the legal team that will handle the lawsuit. The plaintiffs will be represented by Rocky Anderson, former Salt Lake City mayor, 2012 Justice Party presidential nominee, and respected public interest attorney, and Bruce Fein, a nationally-known constitutional lawyer who served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan.

In addition to 2012 Libertarian presidential and vice-presidential nominees Gov. Gary Johnson and Judge Jim Gray (Ret.) and Green Party nominees Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, plaintiffs in the lawsuit will also include the candidates’ campaign organizations and both the Libertarian and Green national parties.  When finalized, the lawsuit will be filed in federal court in Washington, DC.

The legal challenge will maintain that the Commission on Presidential Debates, a private organization, formed by the chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties, unfairly and intentionally limits participation in the nationally-televised debates to the Democratic and Republican nominees — placing other national party nominees at a severe and unjust disadvantage. 

The proposed remedy will be that the debates include candidates who are legally qualified to serve and whose names appear on enough states’ ballots to potentially secure a majority in the Electoral College.  In 2012, that threshold would have allowed participation by the Libertarian nominee Johnson and the Green Party’s Stein, as well as the two parties’ vice-presidential nominees.

This won't give them complete equality in access to the political process, but it would be a very good start -- and if they were invited to the presidential debates, it might encourage the media to give those parties (and their candidates) more coverage. I hope they win this suit, because both parties have earned their place in our political system.