Wednesday, October 4, 2000

Greens: ‘Let Ralph debate’

75 backers of Nader protest at UI

By Michael Knock
Iowa City Press-Citizen

The Non-Partisan Commission on Presidential Debates requires that candidates have the support of at least 15 percent of the electorate in national polls before they will be included in debates. Nader, as well as Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan and Libertarian Harry Browne, have poll numbers that vary from 1 percent to 3 percent.

"We're here today because we're being silenced," said Alex Pickett, a Nader supporter and a member of the UI group Students Against Sweatshops. "Ralph Nader's exclusion from the debate between Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dummer is all on account of fear."

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush faced off against Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore Tuesday in Boston in the first of three scheduled debates.

Area Greens were not impressed, however. Some carried signs at Tuesday's rally that read "Bribery Will Get You Everything," and "Bush and Gore Make Me Wanna Ralph."

Michelle Kenyon, a member of the Green Party of Iowa City, called Nader's exclusion from the debates an injustice.

"(Tuesday's debate) is going to be a very ritualistic debate between two hereditary politicians," Kenyon said. "It's no surprise that a commission created and controlled by Democrats and Republicans have locked out Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan and others."

Kenyon added that because Nader was not allowed to participate, issues such as the genetic engineering of foods, the death penalty and a living wage would not be debated.

UI junior Peter Reed said that despite the lack of those issues as well as the absence of Nader, he planned to watch Tuesday's debate.

"It should be pretty funny in the very least," Reed said. "George Bush is very funny to me, and he should be good for some laughs."

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