Johnson Stein mashup.jpg

Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson (left) and Green Party nominee Jill Stein (right) have so far been excluded from presidential debates.

(AP (Johnson), Lisa Abitbol (Stein))

To the Editor,

Well folks, it's election season again, and we will have to choose which of four viable candidates to choose for president. Four? Yup, four. There are four candidates who are on enough state ballots to get enough Electoral College votes to win -- Jill Stein of the Green Party, Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party, Donald Tump of the Republican Party.

But it seems that only two of them, Clinton and Trump, thus far, will be allowed to participate in presidential debates. Hmm, why is that? Well it seems that the folks running the debates, the Commission on Presidential Debates -- a private, not a public "commission" -- is headed by former officials of the Democratic and Republican parties. The debates used to be run by the League of Women Voters, but the two "major" parties imposed so many "conditions" that the League apparently got disgusted and left.

However, as an Independent -- which category, by the way, contains more registered voters than either the Democratic or Republican parties -- I would like to hear from all the candidates.

Wouldn't it be hypocritical for Clinton, who proudly avows her support for equal opportunities for women (all women, I presume), to fail to champion the right of another woman to be on that stage, a woman who is entitled to be?

And wouldn't it be hypocrtical for Trump, who says he is determined to make America great again, to fail to champion the right of a fellow who has Liberty embedded in the name of his party, to be on that stage as well?

So I would strongly urge that those of you who have decided to support either Clinton or Trump to tell your candidate that if they want the support of Independents like me -- and they are going to need it -- they need to tell their candidate to demand that we can hear all the viable candidates speak their piece. For if they believe they are the best, they would have no need to fear such debate. But if they do not insist on their presence, we have to wonder, what are they afraid of?

Sue Hammond

North Syracuse