In case you were not aware, the main reason the debates for the general election is almost always between the Democratic and Republican nominees for president, it is because the DNC and RNC undue influence on the Commission on Presidential Debates. They don’t want anyone else participating. Ergo, Americans see and hear the same parties with only varying degrees of regurgitation.
The Libertarian Party and Green Party and their 2012 candidates for president are readying a legal complaint against the Commission on Presidential Debates, hoping that a new legal argument — an anti-trust argument — will break the “duopoly” that’s dominated the stage.
The legal complaint, which was sent early to The Washington Post, argues that a “cognizable political campaign market” is being corrupted by the commission’s rules. The commission, a private entity set up after the League of Women Voters’ 1992 debates allowed third party candidate Ross Perot to participate, has withstood yearly assaults from the likes of Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan, and former Congressman Bob Barr. None of them have gotten past a 1999 commission rule: No candidate gets onstage unless he or she is polling at 15 percent or better.
Below is the Libertarian Presidential Debate hosted by Fox Business Channel’s John Stossel in 2-parts. It is marked by its civility. Interestingly, a solid “religious test” position is staked-out by Austin Petersen who is himself an atheist.
I do not hold many typical Libertarian positions but the exchange of ideas is better than most of the 2016 campaign debates to date.
