Denver Post

wohnungssuche KudjapeLet the flowers bloom

Friday, August 02, 2002 - So-called minor parties often find it difficult to attract support because voters are afraid to "waste" their vote in a closely fought election. But the truth is that the only wasted vote is the vote that is not cast. It's also true that minor parties can make a major difference in the American political system.

It's rare for an independent party candidate to win a high-profile race - notwithstanding the lamentable exception of Jesse Ventura to that rule. But when third parties have successfully fought for principle, they have often been rewarded by seeing their ideas stolen and incorporated into the major party platforms. The Socialists attracted more than a million votes in 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt lost no time in looting their platform for salable ideas, including what became the Social Security system.

Now, five alternative parties with vastly differing philosophies have joined forces in Colorado to offer an alternative to the half of Colorado's eligible voters who are not affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic parties. The American Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law and Colorado Reform parties have created a common website to raise voter awareness. Its address is www.coloradovoices.org

If nothing else, the diversity represented in this new Colorado Coalition of Independent Political Parties itself gives the lie to the "wasted vote" argument.

hotel rooms Sorrento In fact, many votes cast for independent parties don't come from Republican or Democratic voters at all - experts estimate about half come from "alienated voters" who would simply stay home if limited to what they see as a tweedledee/tweedledum choice between major parties.

As Colorado's only statewide newspaper, The Post is delighted to see CCIP's formation. We'd love to give full coverage to all parties and candidates. But as a practical matter, we rarely have the staff or space to cover all the possible bases in the hundreds of state and local races we cover. And in time-limited forums, such as broadcast debates, giving equal time to all candidates is actually a disservice to the great majority of viewers, who usually want to see the Democrat and Republican slug it out.

The best answer to such dilemmas is to provide alternative channels by which a thousand flowers may bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend - if we may parrot what is probably the only intelligent thing Mao Zedong ever said.