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H 23°, L 9°If you love your country and want to devote your life to improving it but can’t bring yourself to identify with either the Democratic or Republican parties, here’s a suggestion: Don’t run for office. Forget what your 4th grade teacher told you in civics class — just because you can grow up and run for president doesn’t mean you should, especially if you want to do something that matters. If you run for public office as a third-party candidate on the state and especially the federal level, your efforts to improve the nation will be wasted, and you will have squandered time and money you could have spent actually making a difference.
Consider the cases of Ralph Nader and Kevin Barrett, both of whom are currently running for federal office and have just received enough signatures to appear on Wisconsin’s ballot in November. Nader first made headlines in 1965 for exposing the automobile industry’s utter negligence of basic safety features, spawning the mandated safety regulations that still exist for the entire industry today. From there he helped found a massive public interest group that investigated what he believed to be the threat of government corruption, and founded over four dozen non-profit organizations dedicated to fighting what he saw as the dangers posed by large corporations. However, his active campaigning for president since 2000 — running in opposition to what he sees as the corporate-dominated Democratic and Republican parties — has done little more than make a vague political statement that grows weaker with each passing election. The time he spends gallivanting across the country looking for votes could, as his track record before the last several elections shows, be better spent elsewhere.
Kevin Barrett, though not quite as good an example as Nader, is another irrelevant political hopeful who used to make great strides toward addressing what he thought to be a major issue in the United States. Several years ago, while holding down a job as assistant lecturer at UW-Madison, Barrett caught the nation’s attention by suggesting that the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 was engineered by our own government. Whatever the truth to his theory (none whatsoever), he sparked a national debate on academic freedom and consequently brought an enormous amount of publicity to his cause. However, Barrett, ravenous for attention, is trying to force his message further into the public sphere, making a complete ass of himself in the process and contributing nothing to his cause. In the middle of conservative writer David Horowitz’s guest lecture last semester, Barrett stood up, rudely interrupted Horowitz with a totally irrelevant question about 9/11, and was subsequently booed out of the auditorium. Now he is running as a third-party libertarian candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, and doesn’t have a prayer of winning. How will a fruitless run for Congress prove his conspiracy theory or convince the public that he’s not a grade-A wacko, instead of doing just the opposite?
The true tragedy lies in what these two campaigners could accomplish in the time it takes them to gather enough signatures to appear on the ballot (a tragedy in Nader’s case, anyway — Barrett’s case is tragic primarily for himself). While it is unfortunate that most elections in this country are limited to two parties and candidates with gobs of money and connections — that is simply the way our system works — and no amount of complaining or acting contrary to convention will change that. But persist anyway, to assume that only a president or a congressman can truly solve problems is childish, on the level of a 4th grader still learning civics. And if they really don’t expect to win some petty election, why are they in the race at all? Are they trying to shove their cause further down our society’s throat — to force us to pay attention to their campaign by thrusting the question of to vote or not to vote for them upon us? Do they really believe this will support their ideology, achieve their ends more effectively than working within an already established public interest empire to hold corporations accountable, or consulting actual scientists to review the site and gather more convincing evidence?
Nader and Barrett’s desperate attempts to grab the public’s attention instead of working within their means to solve their own personal crusades speaks of oversized egos crying out for the public spotlight to shine on them, not their causes.
Jack Garigliano ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in history and English.
IP hash: cd1882a8
Jack,
You might be interested in listening to Kevin Barrett on Wisconsin Public Radio a few weeks ago.
http://www.radiodujour.com/people/barrett_kevin
Dr. Barrett is not seeking attention for himself (ad hominem du jour), rather, he is trying to shine light on the silly/absurd/bogus official 9/11 conspiracy theory that 19 + 1 were able to defeat our air defence systems not to mention the laws of physics.
IP hash: aeff90fb
Now that we have heard from Jack Garigliano, a student who couldn’t pass Civics 101 with a cheat sheet.. needs to realize that if it weren’t for a third party in 1860, we’d still be under slavery, and the next election another third party helped restore the nation… and again a third party in the early part of the 1900’s pushed past the Republicans to finish 2nd to Wilson’s Democratic run. Unfortunately Garigiano doesn’t get it.. the system is not two-party exclusive. It is all exclusive. That is what makes America great! Maybe Garigiano needs to retake his 4th grade civics class again.. and this time pay attention.
Garigliano,
IP hash: 20906bcc
So who do you want me to waste my time with; Obama or McCain?
IP hash: 07cafd35
If you disagree with this view and the many strawperson arguments it relies on, help grow third parties on campus. Support the Green Party (which actually elected ten members to office in local elections earlier this year) by forming a campus Green Party chapter at UW-Madison. For help, e-mail [email protected]
IP hash: 07cafd35
If you disagree with this view and the many strawperson arguments it relies on, help grow third parties on campus. Support the Green Party (which actually elected ten members to office in local elections earlier this year) by forming a campus Green Party chapter at UW-Madison. For help, e-mail [email protected]
IP hash: 9534fefc
Your argument is self defeating. One of the major reasons for running as a third party candidate is throwing light on issues that the two major parties would rather see buried, such as rampant corruption and undue corporate influence on our government. Although your article is unfriendly to these two candidates, you most certainly would not have written about either if they were not running for elected office. If no “outsiders” ever ran for office, public discussion of policy would be much more narrow.
Also, when you say: “While it is unfortunate that most elections in this country are limited to two parties and candidates with gobs of money and connections � that is simply the way our system works � and no amount of complaining or acting contrary to convention will change that.”
You are effectively saying “the well-connected elite control us, but that’s the way it is, so shut up, sit down, and get back to working on more trivial matters, because we can’t change that”
This is the mindset of a populous ready and eager to cede more and more of their individual freedom (defined by Cicero as participation in power), with no end. Your lack of faith in the power of the people to determine their own fate is not only discouraging, but contrary to the history of this country, especially on the matters of the American Revolution, the abolition of slavery, the farmer’s populist movement, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement.
Please stop trying to rationalize your own futility, stand up, and control your fate.
IP hash: 9534fefc
Your argument is self defeating. One of the major reasons for running as a third party candidate is throwing light on issues that the two major parties would rather see buried, such as rampant corruption and undue corporate influence on our government. Although your article is unfriendly to these two candidates, you most certainly would not have written about either if they were not running for elected office. If no “outsiders” ever ran for office, public discussion of policy would be much more narrow.
Also, when you say: “While it is unfortunate that most elections in this country are limited to two parties and candidates with gobs of money and connections � that is simply the way our system works � and no amount of complaining or acting contrary to convention will change that.”
You are effectively saying “the well-connected elite control us, but that’s the way it is, so shut up, sit down, and get back to working on more trivial matters, because we can’t change that”
This is the mindset of a populous ready and eager to cede more and more of their individual freedom (defined by Cicero as participation in power), with no end. Your lack of faith in the power of the people to determine their own fate is not only discouraging, but contrary to the history of this country, especially on the matters of the American Revolution, the abolition of slavery, the farmer’s populist movement, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement.
Please stop trying to rationalize your own futility, stand up, and control your fate.
IP hash: 9534fefc
Your argument is self defeating. One of the major reasons for running as a third party candidate is throwing light on issues that the two major parties would rather see buried, such as rampant corruption and undue corporate influence on our government. Although your article is unfriendly to these two candidates, you most certainly would not have written about either if they were not running for elected office. If no “outsiders” ever ran for office, public discussion of policy would be much more narrow.
Also, when you say: “While it is unfortunate that most elections in this country are limited to two parties and candidates with gobs of money and connections � that is simply the way our system works � and no amount of complaining or acting contrary to convention will change that.”
You are effectively saying “the well-connected elite control us, but that’s the way it is, so shut up, sit down, and get back to working on more trivial matters, because we can’t change that”
This is the mindset of a populous ready and eager to cede more and more of their individual freedom (defined by Cicero as participation in power), with no end. Your lack of faith in the power of the people to determine their own fate is not only discouraging, but contrary to the history of this country, especially on the matters of the American Revolution, the abolition of slavery, the farmer’s populist movement, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement.
Please stop trying to rationalize your own futility, stand up, and control your fate.
IP hash: 20906bcc
The dude who wrote this column has no chance of being elected in 2008. Therefore, he’s wasting his time.
Hence, no one who is not expected to win an election should speak up!
IP hash: 747f9cb3
Barrett’s childish attention-seeking has been so destructive to the causes he claims to support that 9/11 Truthers at truthaction.org declared him “fired”, and the Nat’l Political Director of the Libertarian Party declared him “beyond the pale”. Barrett should take a vow of silence until he can stop embarrassing serious activists.
IP hash: 61110c99
How sad this young person is…truly depressing thought for the future of this country
IP hash: 9534fefc
Dude, please change your majors from history and english; you’re not going to make it. You might want to consider physical education as your concentration—much better chance of getting through the academic hurdles.mkthx.
IP hash: cd1882a8
He said to his friend, “If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,
One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
(Paul Revere did it for the attention?)
IP hash: 39a691d7
While Garigliano is terribly wrong, what a terrible example of third party candidates. Nader’s answer to every problem is more government, Barrett is plain old crazy. These two do not represent third party politics any more than McCain or Obama represent my beliefs.
IP hash: 39a691d7
While Garigliano is terribly wrong, what a terrible example of third party candidates.
Nader’s answer to every problem is more government, Barrett is plain old crazy. These two do not represent third party politics any more than McCain or Obama represent my beliefs.