I wonder how widely known it is around the world how difficult it is for non-duopoly candidates to even run non-write in campaigns. It would be great, I think, if channels like Press TV and Russia Today could give air time to some third party/independent American candidates, and the barriers and the hurdles that they have to jump through in order to even wage candidacies in this alleged/so-called cradle of democracy. Dan Buhrdorf, I think, will have to pay the state of Nebraska to run as a write-in candidate! Jason Lowenthal of the Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts was told by the Secretary of State of that commonwealth, that the forms he used — received from the secretary’s office — should have been on yellowish-tan and not white pieces of paper, which are reserved only for the “lordly” Republicans and Democrats, apparently! Additionally, James Hinton another independent candidate running in 5th district of California, although he is on the ballot for election, is being excluded from a League of Women Voters’ event.

In a lot of European countries I think that the standard is basically 5% (in Sweden 4%) of the vote for a party to have members in parliament, without runoff elections and proportional representation, though, it takes pretty much a miracle for any independents to get elected in this country. These hurdles should not be tolerated, of course, in a vibrant and robust democracy. In a nation with simply the patina, and the PR of one, however, they are stock/standard practice. And they are “par for the course”, indeed, vis a vis what is done to ensure that Republicans and Democrats; and solely Republicans and Democrats, retain a stranglehold not only on political power, but on the overall discourse of this country in these “great and democratic” states of America, for certainty.