February 3, 2012. Porto Alegre, Brazil. In a journalism exchange among international independent media outlets, your Chicago Examiner political reporter had the pleasure to work with fellow independent journalists from extreme southern Brazil this week. The topic was politics, for the US Republican Presidential election appears to be big news worldwide. Instead of a synopsis of the GOP race however, these Brazilian journalists wanted to know of the existence of independent candidates. It appears, only Republicans and Democrats are reported on in the media in South America.
“What a coincidence” this author laughed in response, “The media only reports on Republicans and Democrats here too.” And that led to the big question by the reporters from Sul21 Brazil – “Are US elections fair?” Knowing it would take more than this one column to answer that question in detail, the answer I gave them was a simple, “No.” Consider the following facts. Republicans and Democrats in Congress have an approval rating of 12 percent. 42 percent of American voters identify themselves as ‘independents’. Yet out of 435 Congressmen in the House of Representatives, there are ZERO independents. Why?
Transcript of this author’s responses:
Mark Wachtler, Chicago Examiner: First, there are more candidates running for President than the ones we all see on TV. I’ve got two lists online detailing the candidates, both independents as well as Democrats running against President Obama, who are consistently blacked-out in the news media. The links are:
Independent Candidates for President 2012
Meet Obama's Democratic Challengers
Samir Oliveira, Sul21 Brazil: How do you evaluate the electoral system in US? Is it fair and does it assure everyone who whishes to run for elections?
Mark Wachtler, Chicago Examiner: No, the US electoral system is not fair. It is managed and run by appointees of the two Parties, Republican and Democrat. In their rule making capacity, they create processes and requirements that shut out independent and third party candidates. One example that occurs in every state in the US is the requirement for ballot access. Take my home state of Illinois for example. Republican and Democratic Party candidates need only collect 600 valid petition signatures to appear on the election ballot. Independents and all other parties, like the Greens, Libertarians, Independence, etc., all need to collect 5,000 valid petition signatures. Even when independents achieve the requirements to need only 600, the various Boards of Elections, all run by either Republicans and Democrats, often simply revoke the qualification for no legitimate reason. Just this year, the Green Party qualified for Major Party status here in Illinois, but the government revoked the designation without cause. The Greens are now suing the Board of Elections in court.
Samir Oliveira, Sul21 Brazil: How independent candidates or candidates from other parties, not just republicans or democrats, can run to an election in US? Which kind of difficulties do they find in their way?
Mark Wachtler, Chicago Examiner: One way independents and third party candidates try to get around the fraudulent US election system is to run for office as a Republican or Democrat instead of for the Party they are actually a member of. Take this year's US Presidential election for example. Texas Congressman Ron Paul ran for President in 1988 as the Libertarian Party candidate. He found it virtually impossible. Four years ago and again this time, Dr. Paul is running for President as a Republican. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is in a similar predicament. He was running for President this year as the Republican that he is. Being a pro-liberty Republican however, he was shut out of the system, forcing him to quit the Republican Party and run for President as a Libertarian instead.
Samir Oliveira, Sul21 Brazil: What's the role of media in this process? Here in Brazil, for example, we only get information about Democrat and Republican candidates.
Mark Wachtler, Chicago Examiner: Take former Governor Johnson's case. Here is how he was unfairly sabotaged by the US election system. Out of a field of 12 nationally-known, former elected officials running for President on the Republican Party ballot line, only 9 of the candidates were chosen by the corporate-owned US national media to be included in their voter polls and surveys. Gary Johnson was consistently left off the list of choices. Those poll results decide which candidates are invited to participate in the nationally televised candidate debates. In order to participate, a candidate must be polling at least five percent in multiple polls. But for candidates like former Governor Johnson, it's impossible to poll anything other than zero percent when your name is fraudulently left off the list of candidates. That zero percent poll number insures the candidate will not participate in any debates on TV, insuring the voters don't know who they are and can't support them.
Samir Oliveira, Sul21 Brazil: How much do you think that this system is bad to the American people, once they usually have to choose for President between a Democrat or a Republican candidate?
Mark Wachtler, Chicago Examiner: For the general election, where each party, plus all the independents, run one candidate against each other, the system is slightly more fair. The same obstacles mentioned above still apply however, which is why independents and third party candidates never seem to capture more than 1 or 2 percent of the vote. The reason for that is typically due to the corporate owned media here in the US where all news outlets black-out the candidacy of all candidates except the Republicans and Democrats. And on the rare occasion the media does mention the independent and third party candidates, they portray them as mutant monsters with three heads and five arms.
On behalf of this Chicago Examiner column, I’d like to say thank you to Samir Oliveira from Sul21 in Brazil for reaching out to us. It was a pleasure.
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