The More the Merrier

When I ran for student government exactly 2 years ago, I was part of one of our school's two major political parties, or as we called them "slates." The slates pretty much dominated the elections every year. Then I found out that a third party was running. I was angry. Who did these people think they were? Not a bit of student government experience or involvement in any major campus organization. Coming in wearing chicken suits (this is not an actual picture of them, just a google search) and not knowing the major policy issues.

In the end, this third party put 2 of the races into a runoff, made us spend a whole lot more money and time, and cost one of my good friends that I was running with his election (Nader style). Frustrating? Absolutely. But would I ever bar these third parties, whether joke candidates or the Ralph Naders, from running? No.

Before I joined a slate, I was actually the campaign manager for my friend who ran for President as an independent candidate. I'm sure the two major parties hated him for it, but he had a real message and helped realign the slate I later joined. And though it was hard to take the people in chicken suits who I ran against seriously, buried underneath their feathers and stupid jokes was a message that people embedded in student government (and the major slates) were taking themselves too seriously that they needed to start having more fun and listening to the students.

So when I was watching the Democratic Candidates For President debate today, I had to remind myself not to be as dismissive of some of the candidates. While some of the candidates who have no shot of winning (primarily Congressman Kucinich and former Senator Gravel) said some pretty ridiculous things sometimes, they also had some really good points. Most importantly, they challenged some of the frontrunners to confront the harder issues.

As a Democratic party loyalist, primaries pain me, especially with a lot of candidates. I hate seeing candidates (particularly good frontrunners) just beat up on each other and waste millions of dollars. But as a citizen in general, I know the importance that this primary process plays. And I know how important it is to theoretically open this up to everyone.

I highly doubt I would ever vote for a 3rd candidate or encourage one, but it's a good option to have out there. In the end, as much as Dems hate Nader, Republicans hate Perot, and I hate candidates who run in chicken suits, we can't really, nor should we, bar these people from running. Maybe it means that we don't elect the best person every time, but our society is still better off I think.

If these third/minor/joke candidates decide that it's worth potentially taking away votes from a candidate they might like more and costing everyone much more money, then that's their decision. It's that whole freedom thing we believe in. I just hope that they use it to raise the level of discourse rather than do it for attention. Oh democracy.