Collegiate Times

If you were a nerd or a masochist this past Sunday night, you tuned in to watch the only televised Virginia gubernatorial debate on C-SPAN between Lt. Governor Tim Kaine and former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. I?ll leave you to guess which category I fall into. But if you decided not to watch the debates, let me fill you in on what you missed. Drivel. Boring, meaningless, scripted drivel. The most drivel I?ve seen since, well, the last televised debate I?ve seen, that being the presidential debates from last fall.

The only reason to watch these things anymore is to participate in fun ? but not political-awareness-raising ? drinking games. Let?s face it, the only reason college students watch a debate is because they are waiting for somebody to say ?entitlement taxes,? because they know that will be followed by a shot of Jack Daniels.

But shouldn?t these debates be something more than a scripted press conference where your main concern is to drink so much that you begin to think, ?Jerry Kilgore is a sexy man?? Well, I have the perfect solution on spicing these things up. Allow the other candidates on the ballot to participate in them! Russ Potts, the independent gubernatorial candidate, has a substantial campaign, a fairly large budget and has been able to run his own campaign ads. Yet on Oct. 6, Potts was denied access to the debate by order of U.S. District Judge Norman Moon. The problem with this ruling, however, is that it ignores precedent.

In the case Arkansas Educational TV Foundation v. Forbes (1998), the Supreme Court ruled that government-owned entities must include all candidates with a real campaign, whenever they hold debates. The University of Virginia was the sponsor of the debates, so Potts should have been invited.

This scenario was encountered last fall, when presidential candidates from the Libertarian and Green Parties, Michael Badnarik and David Cobb respectfully, were arrested trying to enter the debates in St. Louis. The two candidates were subsequently barred from the debate held several days later at Arizona State University, another government-owned entity. These actions should leave no doubt in anybody?s mind that if they ever want to hear any voices besides those of the established parties in power, then they cannot rely on the courts. Instead we must elect new voices into government, whether they be Independents, Libertarians, Greens, Constitutionalists, Reformers or that crazy guy down the street who?s always sitting on his porch in his Spongebob boxers. Well, maybe not that guy. The point is, our democracy is much too precious to be limited to just two parties.