For both sides of the political debate in the US

[crashhelmet]

I always thought the Fairness Doctrine covered things like this so that they could get into the primaries, but I guess someone lobbied the FCC to make debates "News Events" so that they were exempt from including the minor parties.

The problem with our multi-party system isn't really the multi-party system itself. It's the Electoral College. If 1 single candidate does not get the minimum required number of electoral votes, the House of Representatives gets to select the President.

So just for example.... Say Obama gets 269 votes, Romney gets 130 votes, and Paul happens to get 139. No one has the constitutionally required majority of 270 votes to win the election.

The Republican controlled House of Representatives can vote for and elect Romney to be the next President, despite coming in last out of the three.

The 12th Amendment of the Constitution needs to be amended before we can seriously move forward with multiple parties.

[Nekojin]

How is there not. There are four total parties registered in enough states to get the proper number of electoral votes. The fact that any of the major networks will not allow them into the debates, report on them or even acknowledge them is a major problem in the country.

The major problem is the "first past the post" (FPTP) electoral system, where one candidate has to receive a majority of the electoral votes in order to be elected President. When no candidate reaches the post, the "run-off" is handled by the House of Representatives, with each state getting one vote.

The FPTP system essentially ensures that for major offices, there will only be two significant candidates for the election; greater numbers of contenders just increases the likelihood that nobody will win, and some other power will make the decision for you.

Greens? Libertarians? American Atheist Party? Forget about them for Congress or Presidential elections (even though we DO actually have one or two Libertarian and Independent Congresscritters - those are severe anomalies). While they might be on the ticket, they will not garner enough votes to even be a significant factor until one of them actually BECOMES one of the Big Two, displacing one of the existing dominant powers.

And thanks to gerrymandering, you can largely forget about that happening.

Just watch. Unless the Ron Paul Electoral College Representative defy their electorate and throw their EVs to Ron Paul instead of the person who actually won their district/state, no candidate other than Mitt Romney or Barack Obama will get more than one EV. And I'll place money on that.

[lordlundar]

I always thought the Fairness Doctrine covered things like this so that they could get into the primaries, but I guess someone lobbied the FCC to make debates "News Events" so that they were exempt from including the minor parties.

Actually the Fairness Doctrine died in 1987. It's why we have so much biased media channels labelled as "news".