Nickname said:
If you want to run for office as a republican or democrat , you pay a small fee and they throw your name up on the ballot (I am referring to smaller, local offices obviously). If you are running as a third party its not that easy. You have to (a) pay a larger fee
The fee is the same, the party subsidizes most of it. Not their fault.
Nickname said:
(get petitions from a large number of voters just to get your name on the ballots.
It’s the same number of petitions for all candidates. I signed a petition to get Bush on the ballot in 2004. Larger parties have a stronger grassroots base so it’s easier to get the signatures but it’s not biased.
Nickname said:
As for presidential candidates, they can’t get invited to participate in the debates unless they have something like 10% of the popular vote already… and if they cant get on the debate they really dont stand a chance.
If we let every crackpot with 1% of the vote on stage we’d never get anywhere. Plus someone would have to dress up like Darth Vader or Washington because they both get a good number of write ins.
Nickname said:
The system is setup to favor the red or blue even though probably 40% of americans fall somewhere in between.
That’s because neither party has a real base anymore, they both try to cater to everyone and in the process please no one. I don’t consider myself a republican because almost none of the candidates this last run represented any of my ideals. That doesn’t mean I would have voted for Ron Paul or Darth Vader because their ideals are MILES away from mine. You don’t have to cater to not have relatively radical ideals.
Nickname said:
Also, if you think all the third parties are “narrowly tailored to the interests of a single issue”, I suggest you take a look at the Libertarian and Constitution party platforms, they are much more robust than the Republican or Democratic party platforms.
I stand by my claim. I’ll even throw out an arbitrary predication that 90% of the parties are narrowly tailored. Prove me wrong in a seperate debate.
Back to the topic: This guy shouldn’t have been fired. It was wrong. Obama should have been focusing on hiring people that paid their taxes instead of axing competant employees.