We are in the home stretch of a historic election year that will probably be talked about for years to come. It started with the Democrat Party’s race between a woman and an African American man who were vying for the nomination to run for president.
Then the economy continued its downturn, which changed to a plummet and everything is at a point of disaster.
This election has a lot of firsts, and whoever is elected president also will face a lot of problems that will not be solved in four years.
The thing that bugs me the most about this presidential election and the media’s coverage is that only two parties are in the lime light. It’s as if the other four presidential candidates do not exist. Even the most publicized debates were between the Democrat and the Republican candidates. Where were the other four?
When this country’s Constitution was formed, political parties did not exist. They grew on their own and took hold in the early 1800s. Two main parties have dominated American politics since the 1860s, and every president elected since 1852 has been either a Democrat or a Republican. Ignoring other candidates keeps the two-party system going.
As a journalist, that has really been rubbing me the wrong way! To have debates held without including the minor parties, along with the moderator point blank saying “one of you will be the next president,” minimizes the other candidates and keeps the American people feeling like their vote does not count unless they vote for a Democrat or Republican. It also is biased journalism. As journalists, our job is to inform the people. Choosing which presidential candidates are worth covering is not our job.
I have been frustrated with the television media for acknowledging only two candidates, but I was unsure about the national print media. I did some searching online and found that News Hour on PBS interviewed both the Independent candidate and the Libertarian candidate. I also found that the New York Times did an article Oct. 15 that identified third-party candidates, but the vast majority of articles followed every move made by McCain and Obama.
We, as a nation, also are training our children that the minor parties do not matter. I checked with a few children’s Web sites that are connected to organizations like Scholastic and Weekly Reader that explore elections and give students an opportunity to vote. Barak Obama and John McCain were the only presidential candidates listed on most of those sites.
Did you know the Green Party’s presidential candidate is an African American woman named Cynthia McKinney and her running mate is Rosa Clemente? Where has the media been? Why haven’t they received the same treatment as Hilary Clinton or Sarah Palin?
What about Chuck Baldwin, the minister who is running on the Constitution Party’s ticket? Or Ralph Nader, who is running on the Independent ticket, and Bob Barr, who is running on the Litbertarian ticket? Wouldn’t it be good for our children also to know about these people?
I know this comes late in the game and nothing can change how the media is currently following the election. We need to change things in the future to allow other party’s candidates more coverage. They deserve a chance to tell the citizens of this country who they are and what they would try to accomplish.
Though many people feel like their vote does not count unless it is cast for a Democrat or Republican, I disagree. John Quincy Adams once said, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
I’m not sure who I will vote for. I may not know until I step into that booth. But I will vote, and I believe that my vote counts, whoever I choose. Yours does too.