GREETINGS FROM THE “SPOILERS”:
PBS TRAILS AMERICA’S THIRD PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS
Experts predict that the 2004 presidential
race will be another nail-biter, with the Oval Office being
awarded to the candidate who can scrape by
with only a few percentage points. Enraged Democrats
still blame “spoiler” Ralph Nader
for siphoning enough votes to tip the balance to George W. Bush. In
reality, the 2000 race was so close —
Al Gore lost Florida by only 537 votes — that the results could
have been altered by any one of eight “third
party” candidates.
Who are these third party renegades who shun the traditional labels of “Democrat”
and “Republican”
— and hope to lead America down a more
independent path? Household names like Ralph Nader can
draw respectable crowds. More often than
not, however, lesser-known candidates speak to rooms
packed with empty furniture. But regardless
of the size of their audience, the fate of third party
candidates is predetermined. Winning is,
quite frankly, impossible. For them, victory means getting the
two major parties to consider their ideas.
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CRASHING THE PARTIES 2004,
a one-hour special that debuted on WGBH nationwide September 29, 2004, took
the Robert Frost approach — the political path less traveled. Viewers
will meet all the third party candidates expected to be on enough state
ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning the presidency. Spanning
the ideological spectrum, these underdogs share one
thing in common — a passionate desire to make American a better place.
The program chronicles the struggles of the Libertarian Party (Michael Badnarik),
the Green Party
(David Cobb), the Constitution Party (Michael
Peroutka) and Ralph Nader — who is pursuing the
elusive dream of uniting America’s
third parties into one independent movement.
Advocates of a two-party system argue that multiple parties weaken the electoral
process by
fragmenting the country into special interest
groups, instead of building a broad coalition-based
consensus. Third party supporters maintain
that they make the elections more inclusive and
representative of the public. In their view,
Americans have dozens of choices of toothpaste brands
— why not more than two choices for
the most powerful job on earth?
Expert commentators include Harvard University lecturer Jesse Ventura, the
professional wrestler who
stunned the political world with his successful
independent bid for Minnesota governor in 1998.
CRASHING THE PARTIES 2004 is part of the national October
line-up of “By the People,” PBS’
series of political documentaries, news specials
and educational programs aimed at getting more voters
involved in the electoral process.
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Underwriters: Public Television Viewers,
PBS and Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Producer:
AWARD Productions, Inc. Directors: Al Ward
and Peter Koziell. Writer: Darren Garnick. Format: CC
Stereo Letterbox/Widescreen where available.
