(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - According to the latest Gallup poll, 52 percent of Americans believe that both Democrats and Republicans have been doing a poor job of representing their constituents and that a third party is needed in the US political system.
Gallup's assessment indicates it is likely that an independent candidate will run in the 2012 presidential election in the United States.
The interview is with Alison Weir, executive director of If Americans Knew regarding the possibility of a third-party candidate entering the US political scene in the 2012 presidential election.
What follows is the text of the interview [supported by two other guests: former US Senate Candidate, Mark Dankof and author and investigative journalist, Dave Lindorff]:
Q: Gallup has asked the respondents this question: "In your view, do the Republican and Democratic parties do an adequate job of representing the American people, or do they do such a poor job that a third major party is needed?" What is your response to this question? Do the two main parties represent the American people and their aspirations?
Weir : … A great many Americans across the political spectrum are extremely unhappy with the current political situation in the US, especially the fact that we continue to be involved in foreign wars that most Americans don't think we should be involved in, that our budge is out of control, that the government grows larger and larger and most people are not happy about that. So you find both liberals and conservatives dissatisfied with the great deal that is going on.
I think there is much more common ground among Americans from the Democratic party and from [the] Republican party than our media let us know; it is reported only as [an] adversarial kind of situation where all the liberals are supposed to be against all the conservatives and all the conservatives are supposed to be against all liberals. But you find movements of growing significance, for example the Ron Paul movement, where you find [that,] even though it has largely begun by people who would be identified as traditional anti-interventionist conservatives, a great many disaffected Democrats are also excited about this movement and have joined it as well. So I think this Gallup poll makes sense to me, I am not surprised to see that many people are not happy with their two party-system and the way they are operating.
Q : Mark Dankof mentioned three factors: corporate factor, Wall Street and Zionist interests. It seems that these are some of [the] three common features of US presidencies. What would indicate that the US presidents [are] breaking away from these three features?
Weir : These are such important comments and this is exactly what is going on. For example, during the last election there was a debate that was broadcast, I think on C-SPAN [Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, an American cable television network] or some alternate TV broadcast that almost no one saw. But I had the opportunity to see it online between Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin. Ralph Nader, I think with the Green party, and Chuck Baldwin was the presidential candidate from the Constitution Party which is a traditional conservative third party. It was a remarkably intelligent debate, unlike the debate that the Americans usually see between presidential candidates. In this case both were discussing content, were discussing policies, [and] were discussing facts. It was done in a respectful civil manner and a number of important areas, especially to do with our foreign policy [were discussed;] two candidates, even though they were from the Left and from the Right, were very similar to each other, [and] were in an agreement on a lot of major issues.
That is the kind of debate that most Americans would like to see; they would like to see a respectful, intelligent debate about these really critical issues facing the US today. But what we are instead given by the mainstream media and by the two major parties are acrimonious debates that don't really get into content in significant manner, are full of hyperbole and disrespect for the other half of the political spectrum, of our citizenry, and just manage to create this divide in the US that works so much to prevent us, those of us that really do care about international relations and about our own nation, from joining together that way that these third party movements could sometimes provide.
Q: If we want to look at the outcome of the elections that are going to come up in less than a year, we can start with the defeat of the Democrats in the midterm elections, that was a telling sign that Americans were not happy. Please put that into perspective in terms of Americans expect from a third party. The Gallup poll has shown that American people are disillusioned with the political system in the US.
Weir : I think people are disillusioned and this leads to such a low voter turnout which is unfortunate because if you are not happy with the system, what you should, I feel strongly, is you should vote and take greater action but many people just opt out and that is unfortunate.
In terms of what happens in the next elections, I don't feel I can predict. I did feel very strongly, I knew before this previous election, I knew it would be a Democrat. I thought it would be part of this game that there would be a Democrat, that there would be a different face on the same policies and that has exactly turned out to be the case. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have made a prediction and in that case it would have been correct. But right now, I cannot make any predictions except that I don't accept major change as yet, even though there is so much dissatisfaction with what is going on. One of the major two parties will win once again in the next election.
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