Third Parties

An extended version of a piece slated for Friday's edition of The Sun

]By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

John McCain versus Barack Obama.
Republican versus Democrat.
Red versus Blue
Blah. Blah. Blah.

Politics in the United States is often presented as a competition between the two rival factions that use either a donkey or an elephant for their mascot. Come November, voters venture into the privacy of the voting booth and exercise their freedom of choice by selecting one of the two candidates available for various state and national offices.

But things are not so simple. In California, voters casting ballots for who they want to serve as the next President aren't limited to the Dems and GOP. The American Independent, Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom parties also have their nominees on Golden State ballots.
Members of those lesser-known parties, known collectively as "third parties" in the parlance of American politics, want to have their voices heard in the nation's political discourse.

But history has shown that third parties face a tough road to prominence. The Republicans of Abraham Lincoln rose from third party to major party status during the turmoil before the Civil War. However, the Free Soilers, Know Nothings and Bull Moose Progressives are remembered in the pages of history books, but absent from modern day politics.

But today's third party adherants remain dedicated to their myriad causes despite a lack of attention from many in the general public and the media.

"They don't cover us, nobody votes for us," Libertarian Party representative Carolyn Marbry said at a political discussion Wednesday in San Bernardino. "Nobody votes for us so they don't cover us. It's a vicious cycle."

Marbry and three other third party members took part in a panel discussion Wednesday night at Feldheym Central Library in downtown San Bernardino on Wednesday night to discuss their views and places on the political landscape.

"I believe the place (of third parties) is to broaden the dialogue," said Randall Lopez, who organized Wednesday's session under the moniker of Inland Empire HardCore, which he described as something of a one-man outfit dedicated to arousing interest in public affairs.

Lopez, incidentally, is registered as a Republican. He said he voted for libertarian-minded Texan Ron Paul in the GOP primary and plans on voting for Peace and Freedom nominee Ralph Nader in the General Election.

Nader is perhaps the most well-known third party candidate of this decade. He has previously run for president as the nominee of the Reform and Green parties.

From left-to-right, Wednesday's panel at Feldheym featured Kevin Akin of the Peace and Freedom Party, Jamie Rose Snyder of the Green Party, Marbry of the Libertarians, and Bill Lussenheide of the Constitution Party.

Save for Lussenheide, Wednesday's speakers represented the four third parties whose presidential candidates qualified for California ballots. The American Independent party - which nominated conservative activist Alan Keyes for president - broke from the Constitution Party earlier this year.

A wide-range of views was represented at Feldheym, but the four speakers were united in their dissatisfaction with the two-party dynamic.

"It's such a poor concept to say 'I'm for the lesser of two evils.' That's so weak," said Lussenheide, who incidentally, was the only one of the four speakers to wear a business suit Wednesday.

"Let's stand up and kick against this evil," he continued."

The Constitution Party's presidential nominee is Chuck Baldwin, the minister of a Baptist church in Florida.

The Constitution Party has a highly conservative platform that relies upon a strict constructionist view of the the Constitution. Libertarians similarly believe in limited government, However, Libertarians' brand of individualism differs on social issues and unlike the Consitution Party members, they do not support laws against abortion or same-sex marriage.

The Libertarian Party's presidential nominee is Bob Barr, formerly a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Georgia.

The Green Party represents views of the political Left as part of an international movement with a considerable emphasis on environmentalism.

"It's OK to be radical because we are in radical times," Snyder said.

The Green's presidential nominee is Cynthia McKinney, formerly a Democratic member of the House representing a Georgia district.

Also on the Left, the Peace and Freedom party proudly uses a word that's practically considered a profanity in American politics -- socialism.

The plight of third parties was once satirized on a Halloween-themed episode of "The Simpsons" when aliens took over the bodies of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Even after animated voters learned that the two major candidates were bent upon conquering humanity, a malevolent space creature went on to win the presidency after one of the aliens derided a third party selection as a "waste" of one's vote.

Back in the real world, Kevin Akin of the Peace and Freedom party made his bid for the kind of idealism that leads one to vote for a candidate who really doesn't have a chance of winning.
Quoting another socialist, Eugene V. Debs, Akin said "it's better to vote for something you want and not get it than something you don't want and get it."

"Why should I vote for something I don't agree with?," he asked.