By Richard Gomez
The Commission on Presidential Debates is a private firm began in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties leaders to establish the way that presidential election debates are run between candidates for President of the United States. Gazing at its Web site, you could believe that the Commission is committed to sponsoring and producing general election debates in 2016 that fulfill its voter education mission. This nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation has been sponsored by private contributions from foundations and corporations like Anheuser-Busch Companies, the International Bottled Water Association, AT&T, Philip Morris Companies Inc. and other groups.
The Democratic and Republican Party leadership controls this Commission to guarantee that one of their nominee(s) will win the November election to protect and maintain the political power for both political parties and to deny forever the rights for third parties and independents to compete for the White House by reaching the largest captive TV audience—the American voter. Public pressure for years has finally forced the Commission to hold a Public Comment period that ended July 10. Written below are my thoughts sent to the Commission.
I ask that the Commission on Presidential Debates to open the debates to all qualified candidates for the office of President of the United States. Qualification should be based on the ability to be on enough state ballots if won, will give them sufficient Electoral College votes to win the Presidency. For too long the voters of the United States have been denied the right to fully know all legitimate candidates running for this office and to make their best choice.
In 2012, the Commission chose to ignore two eligible candidates, Jill Stein of the Green Party and Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. Let’s give the voters the right to know all qualified candidates and vote for who they want. We have become too tired of the leftover chosen by lobbyist and Big Money political leadership that hides behind curtains.
On so many levels, technology has outpaced the human conditions, like medieval churches of Europe that imposed their chosen version of right or wrong. Well the political thought in the United States is much brighter than two sides of an old coin. Years ago, a local TV reporter explained to me that Americans were incapable of making sound choices and could easily vote overwhelmingly for an idiot. The media had to protect the voters from the choices they made.
The Verdict Is In: They Have Failed Miserably!
Now we have a stuffed Republican clown car versus the twin sister of Dr. Evil or the Peter Pan of Vermont in the debates. Houston, we have a problem!
We have the ability and the technology to allow the voters a greater opportunity in choosing its President to open the doors and enlighten the voters to choices. The Commission should have opened up the debates a long time ago, and we should now be reaping the rewards of knowledge and wisdom instead of this continually shucking and re-shucking the dried husk of celebrity-ism. Well, maybe that is great for Hugh Hefner.
Oh how wonderful it would be to join the ranks of other democracies in the world that have much more open and honest contests for political offices, like, for example, Iran. Please, all we are asking is give voters a chance by opening the debates to all qualified candidates.
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Richard Gomez is a council member of the Fresno County Green Party. Contact him at 559-408-3320, richardgomez136@yahoo. com, richard.gomez.9843@facebook.com or via the Green Party Web site (http://FresnoGreens.localgreenparty.org).
