Ron Paul urges third-party vote

In a post called “Ron Paul’s antiwar message,” I asked why popular libertarian-leaning Republican Ron Paul wasn’t helping to build a viable alternative to the two-party system that has saddled America with permanent war, massive deficits, and weakening civil liberties. Well, now Ron Paul has made me eat my words, and I couldn’t be happier about it. In a joint press conference with Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney, independent candidate Ralph Nader, and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, Paul called on his supporters to vote for the candidate that they agree with on the issues, saying that the Democratic and Republican parties in Washington no longer represent the majority of Americans. Paul decried the Commission on Presidential Debates, a corporation controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties that restricts participation in the debates to candidates from the two corporate-sponsored parties. He also attacked the strategy of supporting the lesser of evils and quoted from the book “Tragedy and Hope” by Carol Quigley:

“argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy (Tragedy and Hope: 1247-1248).” 

Ron Paul talks to the press about why voters should support alternative parties:

Ralph Nader speaks at Ron Paul’s press conference about opening the debates:

Cynthia McKinney discusses election integrity at the press conference: