The Democratic-Republican Conspiracy of Dunces

From this week's column at CAIVN:

If a group of people told you that elected officials, influential civic groups, the mainstream media, and independent polling organizations were all engaged in a systematic effort to effectively silence them by ensuring that the wider public was not exposed to their views and opinions, you might conclude that this was nothing but an elaborate conspiracy theory. Yet, this is the reality faced by third party and independent candidates for elected office all across the United States.

The piece goes on to document legal challenges filed against third party and independent candidates in Pennsylvania, the exclusion of Green and Independent candidates from a debate being held by a taxpayer funded group in Arkansas, the failure of mainstream media outlets to cover the Green Party candidate for governor of Massachusetts, and one Libertarian's struggle to overcome the duopolist bias of pollsters in Florida. It concludes:

The apparent nonchalance with which media and pollsters dismiss third party and Independent candidates stands in stark contrast to the seriousness of the Democratic and Republican parties in their efforts to keep them off the ballot. Any candidate who is not beholden to the Democratic and Republican party machines is a threat to the Democratic-Republican monopoly on elected office.

Given that there are already more Independents than there are Democrats and Republicans in over ten states, they are right to be afraid.

Read the whole thing.