Should Third Party Candidates be Allowed to Debate?

[Noblejanobii]

This is an issue that comes up every presidential election cycle in America. The big presidential debates only host the candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties since they're the largest. Third party candidates are now allowed to debate. This can be somewhat infuriating if you support a third party candidate, like I plan to this election year. So what do you think? Is it unfair to let the third party candidates debate? Or is their presence unnecessary because of how little an impact they usually make in the election?

[Neo Emolga]

Absolutely. They have a right to be heard, and it's not fair Republicans and Democrats have a monopoly on something a lot of Americans watch to evaluate their voting decision.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

Internationally, I don't think we've had anything at all about third party candidates from the US. Obviously the media focuses on the two main parties. I think it would be great to have more debates going and broadcasted. Maybe if people knew more about the third party candidates and their policies, they would have a bigger chance to make a difference!

[brandon_g]

Well I dont think there is a formal rule forbiding 3rd party candidates from debating. If I am not mistaken, I believe I heard before this past debate that a candidate has to have atleast 15% of the vote to participate. The problem is, a 3rd party candidate usually NEVER gets that much precentage, so they never get to participate.

Either way, it is sort of rigged for only the republican and democratic nominees to be in it, even if not formally. I guess you could say it is their way of preventing 3rd party candidates from getting in the debate, without formally forbidding it.

[VeloJello]

If the electoral college was thrown out the window so that third party candidates were at all viable, then yes. As it is, it's a completely moot point since the present system makes it so that all third party candidates do is provide a glorified """rebellious""" way of throwing your vote in the garbage.

[Daughter of Mew]

Absolutely yes! A lot of people aren't even aware that alternatives to the two big parties exist, and other candidates certainly aren't talked about in the media I've seen. Awareness would also help to make the vote more fair. It's also great for comedic value - we had a seven party debate for our general election last year and it was absolutely hilarious.

Unfortunately, I think that US politics is too corrupt for it to ever actually happen. Often the winning candidate is simply whoever spent the most money during the campaign. I also think the two party monopoly kind of reflects US culture; it seems almost capitalistic in the sense that smaller parties, who are worse off in the sense of having less money, are dominated by the larger parties. I find it very similar to how two or three big corporations fight over an industry (e.g. Target vs Walmart, AT&T vs Verizon...)