The Democrats did not hold presidential primary debates in 2024, despite the fact, or because, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was challenging Biden for the nomination. (He then became an independent candidate for President.)
The refusal to debate challengers to the status quo is the typical response of the Democrats and Republicans. The most likely reason for this behavior is the fact that neither party has anything worthwhile to offer on any important issue.
Another particularly grievous example comes from New York. For the previous 50 years, a political party was required to have its gubernatorial candidate receive 50,000 votes in order to have guaranteed ballot status for the next 4 years.
This is what happened in the 2018 New York gubernatorial election, and its aftermath. It refers to Libertarian candidate Larry Sharpe.
“On Election Day, Sharpe received 95,033 votes (1.6%) and came in fourth place behind Cuomo, Republican challenger Marc Molinaro, and Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins. Sharpe’s vote total achieved automatic ballot access for the Libertarian Party of New York for the first time in the party’s history.
The 95,333 votes for Governor 2018 Libertarian Party Candidate Larry Sharpe received was MORE THAN 6 TIMES MORE THAN THE PARTY’S VOTE TOTAL OF 15,209 IN 2014.
The Republican Party’s percentage of the vote declined from 40.6% (to Democrat Andrew Cuomo’s 54%) in 2014 to 36.2% (to Democrat Cuomo’s 59.6%) in 2018, a decline of more than 4 percentage points.
In 2019, assorted Libertarian legislative candidates in New York received a total of 37,751 votes. This was a vast improvement over any previous year.
The response of the New York Democrats and Republicans was to retroactively change the requirement to achieve ballot access from the 50,000 votes for governor requirement of the previous 50 years to 130,000 votes every two years, on April 4, 2020 thereby, cheating the Libertarian Party of New York of its ballot access.
In addition, they also tripled the number of petition signatures required to place a candidate on the ballot, from 15,000 to 45,000.
To repeat, this was after the Libertarian Party vote total was MORE THAN 6 TIMES MORE THAN ITS TOTAL 4 YEARS BEFORE WHILE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TOTAL DECLINED BY MORE THAN 4 PERCENTAGE POINTS.
This atrocity is a typical example of Republican and Democrat behavior.
The “Supreme Court” refused to hear the case brought to address this matter, and the only legislative solutions proposed have attracted little to no support and also fall short of addressing this atrocity. The only acceptable solution is to admit that the Libertarian Party satisfied all requirements for permanent ballot status and to restore automatic ballot status for the next four years, plus any additional time the party has been cheated of automatic ballot access.
Starting with April 4, 2020, that number is 3 election cycles and counting, bringing the current total to 5+ years and counting.
If New York Republicans and Democrats continue with this behavior, the response should be to call for a BOYCOTT of all Republican and Democrat candidates in New York State unless or until this situation is rectified. (This would be particularly easy to do to the Republicans. We’d rather have them vote Libertarian, but in addition, practically all Republicans are also on the Conservative line.)
Anything else is simply a stalling tactic designed to perpetually deny the automatic ballot status the Libertarian Party of New York earned while paying lip service to the issue and shedding a few crocodile tears.
Keep in mind that the major political reform to come out of Watergate was to create campaign finance restrictions in order to make sure that a Eugene McCarthy would never again be allowed to challenge the establishment candidate.
The Commission on Presidential Debates is an extension of this idea. Every presidential election since 1988, when they excluded Ron Paul, has been an ELECTION ABOUT NOTHING, which follows a long period of noise about nothing while avoiding real issues, which is one reason the national debt is $38 trillion and rising.
It took 9 months for the national debt to increase from $36 trillion to $37 trillion. It took a mere 73 days to go from $37 trillion to $38 trillion.
This is why an alternative to the current system designed to protect the Republican/Democrat must be proposed. Offering intelligent alternatives will be a victory as long as they are introduced.
Taxpayer-funded primaries, publicly funded elections, ranked choice voting, and the Commission on Presidential Debates which has managed to exclude everyone except the Republican and Democrat Presidential candidates are all part of the same proposal. In addition, the rules involved to receive “matching funds” are beyond absurd in New York.
All must be refuted, and alternatives proposed.
The Republicans and Democrats will have to respond.
If they fail to support them, but cannot refute them, there will be repercussions.
Additional Ballot Access Proposal:
For all offices, from village dog catcher to President of the United States, the requirements will be the same. Ballot access will require 1,000 signatures from registered voters. The time frame to get them will be the two months from late spring to early summer, May 1 to July 1.
Registered voters will be permitted to sign for more than one candidate.
Individual parties can enact their own requirements for candidates in addition to this.