Posted by Guamo at 12:07pm Nov 13 '09On WI public radio today, Theresa Amato, the campaign manager for the 2000/2004 Ralph Nader campaign for president, was the guest. The show revolved around why are third parties hated so much (ie Nader made Gore lose the election in 2000), why is it so hard for 3 party candidates to get elected/on the ballot/into the debates. Now I'm not exactly a fan of Ralph Nader (if I was going to vote for a 3rd party candidate, it would most likely be Ron Paul), but I'm definitely not a fan of the 2 party system either. I believe people aren't getting real choices and are instead being forced to compromise their beliefs to get the person they least hate into office. In fact, how many times have you heard people vote for the lesser of 2 evils? But since democrats and republicans are in charge of electoral vote issues, nothing is being done to change this. For instance, it is so hard for a 3rd party candidate b/c sie has to get on 51 ballots (states + DC) and each has a myriad (and wildly different) requirements. However democrats and republicans are pretty much guaranteed a spot on every ballot. When it comes to presidential debates, which offer the biggest opportunity to connect with the voters, a party must have an average of 15% in 5 consecutive polls in order to be included (which is pretty outrageous in today's politics if you're an independent). And furthermore, the organization which heads the debates is chaired by republicans and democrats, who certainly don't want to see third parties gain power. What do you think about third parties? Are you in favor or not? What do you think needs to happen to reform our electoral voting system if anything? Would you (or have you) ever considered voting for a 3rd party candidate? Inquiring minds wish to know!