Debates cheat our democracy

The Commission on the Presidential Debates recommended Tuesday that Ross Perot, presidential candidate for the Reform Party, not be invited to the presidential debates.

Though the commission’s decision is not binding, the final decision is to be made between President Bill Clinton’s and Republican candidate Bob Dole’s campaign officials.

These bipartisan officials are definitely becoming involved in a supposedly unbiased decision. These people are essentially decide what subjects and platforms are pertinent for the public to know. Ideas and issues that are important to the public are being filtered through parties who all have an agenda.

The engineers of the debates control the information the public receives. This limits the people’s ability to get all of the facts in order to determine what ideas they want to support and those they do not.

Voters have a right to know all of the possibilities, which should not be dictated to them by groups whose main interest is to grandstand virtually unchallenged.

After voters have been bombarded by numerous advertisements by both the Clinton and Dole campaigns, it is time they have a chance to be exposed to alternative ideas instead of the same stale ones that have been beaten like a dead donkey (or elephant).

Candidates such as Perot and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader have those alternative ideas. Though they may not be as popular in the polls as Clinton and Dole, they have something important to say.

To discount other candidates concerned about what is going on in this country as interesting or entertaining, as the panel had said, is condescending not only to the other parties involved but to voters who may want to hear these candidates.

Having the candidates of all of the major political parties present at debates also requires that these candidates defend their positions.

Because there are going to be voters considering the Reform Party and Green Party, it gives more people a chance to see if these candidates are worth supporting. They have new ideas and a different perspective which veers from the standard.

The standards supposedly upheld by the leaders of this country have completely dissipated. By allowing a nonpartisan panel, which decides what information the public receives, to consist of Democrats and Republicans, policy-makers are destroying the democratic process.

Giving voters the ability to obtain all of the facts may end the cynicism and apathy they have toward politicians.