Connor Gleason/The Ithacan THIRD PARTY CANDIDATE Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party debates against Michael Peroutka of the Constitution Party, David Cobb of the Green Party and Walt Brown of the Socialist Party at Cornell last night.

While the media spotlight shines on the every move of President George W. Bush and Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry, the majority of Americans might not even recognize the faces of third-party presidential candidates on the street.

Third-party candidates David Cobb of the Green Party, Walt Brown of the Socialist Party, Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party and Michael Peroutka of the Constitutional Party stressed the importance of political diversity in a debate held last night at Cornell University.

Badnarik, whose party stands for individual liberties and personal responsibilities, as well as a free market economy and a foreign policy of non-intervention and free trade, said third parties address issues ignored by the major parties.

“You cannot vote Republican or Democratic and expect Washington to change,” Badnarik said. “Forget this wasted vote fallacy and vote for the candidate of your choice.”

He said the Democratic and Republican candidates are going to continue to raise taxes, support the war, implement a draft, keep a budget deficit and pass laws, like the USA Patriot Act, which he claims violates the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

“It’s like political suicide to vote for them,” he said.

Each candidate answered audience questions about issues ranging from government assistance for small businesses to why most presidential candidates are white, wealthy males.

Peroutka, whose party focuses on abiding by the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, said that for the system to change, Americans must recognize the potential of third parties.

“We are all here to plant the banner as a presidential candidate, but we want to plant the banner locally, too,” Peroutka said. “Our main problems are in ballot access …and to get major media attention. We have to earn this media attention – the Democrat and Republican parties get this for free.”

The presidential candidate debate lasted more than 90 minutes, including an extensive question-and-answer session in front of a full Schwartz Auditorium in Rockefeller Hall. Theodore Lowi, the John L. Senior professor of American Institutions at Cornell, moderated the debate.

Cornell senior Kane MacAniff said he was engaged but somewhat disappointed by the debate.

“I understand that they are here to present different political views, and I greatly appreciate that,” he said. “But I think what they each said could have been framed better to try and get a wider appeal. At some points they started to actually get somewhere but then they would fall short.”

Despite their shortcomings, third parties can be a viable force for social change, said Juan Arroyo, Ithaca College politics lecturer.

“Giving more of a voice to alternative parties would force the major parties to address different issues in order to bring more people into their coalition,” he said. “This kind of inclusion can only help democracy.”

Junior Peter Davis, Ithaca College Republican vice chair of on-campus affairs, said the major parties deserve to predominate.

“What [third-parties] are doing is foppish and dandy,” Davis said. “I disagree with them wanting to impose this multiparty system into our country to be like Europe. Logically, it just doesn’t fit with our democracy – we would have to overhaul everything we have now for it to work. Then it would eventually just form into a similar two-party system again.”

Conservative and Republican students from Ithaca College and Cornell demonstrated outside of the debate to call attention to various conservative causes.

The Libertarian Party is now on the presidential ballot in 49 states. The Constitution Party is on the ballot in 37 states and the Green Party is on the ballot in 28 states, according to Ballot Access News, a Web site that tracks the access of third-party candidates.

As third party candidates have received support from all sides of the political spectrum, both the Republican and Democratic campaigns should watch for the effect the third parties will have on voting results both on a local and national level, said Brown, the Socialist candidate.

The Socialist party focuses on eliminating discrimination based on class, race and gender by cooperating as a community.

“We have to build from the ground up,” Brown said. “Because sooner or later the top [holding the third parties back] is going to disappear.” The Green Party, on whose ticket Ralph Nader ran in the 200presidential election, received 2.8 million votes in the year 2000. The party, which nominated Cobb this year, works for grassroots democracy, social justice, ecological wisdom and personal and global responsibility.

“Studies show that we get our votes from people that wouldn’t otherwise vote,” Cobb said. “We get people who are disgusted with the corporate leaders and remember nobody owns your vote. What some people call spoiling, Greens call participating.”

Ralph Nader, former Green Party candidate for president, will speak tonight at 8 p.m. in the State Theatre about the war in Iraq. Nader is running for the Reform Party, which is on the ballot in 36 states.

The Reform Party focuses on setting high ethical standards for politicians, balancing the budget, creating a new tax system and promoting new jobs.