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The U.S. Constitution does not mention political parties. One might easily forget that, at a time when the Democratic and Republican parties so dominate the American political landscape. Such is their stranglehold that it takes a monumental effort for an independent presidential candidate even to get on the ballot.
Thanks to over 100,000 volunteers in 50 states, my campaign is on track to be on the ballot in all of them. These volunteers reflect a new reality: the two parties may dominate the institutions of power, but they are fast losing their legitimacy in the public mind.
A Gallup poll last year showed some 49 percent of voters identify as independents—just about double those identifying as Republican or Democrat. I will make sure they are represented on the ballot. But they also deserve representation on the debate stage. Unfortunately, there is a danger that the two-party duopoly will collude to prevent that from happening.
According to reporting in The Washington Post and many other sources, the Biden campaign agreed to debate former President Donald Trump on CNN under the condition that I be excluded. If accurate, these reports reveal a serious lack of journalistic integrity on the part of CNN, which styles itself as a politically unbiased, objective news source. Obviously, colluding with one campaign to sabotage another violates that principle.
There is, however, much more at stake here than just journalistic integrity and the principle of fairness. This election is the best chance in a generation to liberate American politics from the two-party stranglehold that has gripped Congress and American society in a deepening paralysis.
The electoral strategy of each party is to incite as much contempt and hatred as possible for the other side. Today, Republicans and Democrats paint the 2024 election—as they did the 2020 election and the 2016 election—in apocalyptic tones. The people on the other side are so horrible, you see, that democracy itself is at stake.
The venomous tone of political discourse drives many people away from politics altogether. This combination of apathy on the one hand, and partisan frenzy on the other, paralyzes our political system. The two sides consume 99 percent of their energy fighting each other over the narrow set of issues (mainly culture war issues) that are most useful in inciting outrage among their base. Little political will remains to address the problems that are crushing our nation. Issues such as $34 trillion in public debt, the chronic disease epidemic, decaying infrastructure, addiction to war, corporate-government corruption, and the affordability crisis occupy precious little bandwidth compared to abortion, guns, and trans rights.
To address these crises, we must liberate the political conversation in this country. That will never happen as long as two polarized parties control it.
That is why it is so important to inject an outside perspective – a perspective that also expresses the independence of nearly half the electorate—in the presidential debates. The "political conversation" starts at the top, with the words spoken by the candidates for the highest office in the land.
To have a third candidate on the debate stage suggests that maybe there is another way to look at things besides us versus them. It suggests the possibility of transcending polarized views and hateful divisions. Some experts today question how much impact debates have when partisan identities are so strong that people watch to cheer on their candidate, rather than to make up their minds. But this election is an exception, because a wild card has entered the stacked deck of two-party politics. That wild card is my insurgent candidacy, which defies polarizing left-right categorization.
When it comes to debating each other, Democrats and Republicans are known quantities. They—and the voters—know what to expect. Their positions on issues are mutually familiar, and the debate proceeds along familiar lines: takedowns and gotchas, one-liners and quips. The lack of substance reflects not just the capacities of the debaters; it reflects as well the entire bipolar setup.
Basic democratic principles dictate that as the strongest independent candidate in a generation, I should be included in the presidential debate. Beyond that, my inclusion has the potential to transform our political discourse. It can bring neglected yet urgent issues into public consciousness. And it can free us from the polar, us-versus-them thinking that has so dangerously divided us.
Robert F. Kennedy is running for president of the United States as an independent.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
