Who debates the Debate Commission?

How the presidential debates went from an innovative way to educate American voters to a bipartisan tool to suppress political opposition.

Since 1988, the presidential debates have been run by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a bi-partisan committee controlled by (you guessed it) the GOP and the DNC. This election, candidates must get on the ballot in enough states that they could win the general election, and poll nationwide at 15% in 5 polls selected by the CPD to be invited. A look at the details of these rules and the history of the debates shows how damaging this status quo is to US politics.

First, 15% in nationwide polling is very difficult to attain. In order for a candidate to get their message to enough people to reach 15%, they need money to pay for a ridiculous amount of advertising. However, the picture gets worse when you consider that the CPD can choose any 5 polls it likes that count toward that 15%, and they can announce those polls at any time. This election, they were announced on August 15th, barely more than a month before the first debate. In addition, almost half of the polls do not put the third party candidates on even footing. In many cases, they are mentioned on a later question* so the options read Clinton/Trump and then later Stein/Johnson, rather than an even Clinton/Trump/Stein/Johnson. In some cases, the third party candidates are not listed at all, requiring one to specifically write them in under the “other” option, if available.

The last third party candidate to make it into the debates was Ross Perot under the Reform Party in 1992. He successfully surpassed 15% in the polls before the first debate, but it’s important to remember that he was a billionaire who was able to buy a considerable amount of national TV time, often talking for 30 minutes slots to talk about his platform. Perot did so well in the 1992, ending with around 18% of the popular vote, that the CPD raised the requirements to get into the debates in 1996, keeping Perot out in his second presidential run.

Ross Perot, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton share a debate stage in 1992.

However, it didn’t always work this way. The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonpartisan civic organization that ran the debates from 1976 to 1984 and was so even-handed and even tough on the candidates that it would lead to their eventual resignation. In 1980, Republican representative John Anderson ran as an independent presidential candidate and was invited by the LWV to participate in the debates. In response to this invitation, Democratic incumbent president running for reelection Jimmy Carter refused to participate. However, the Republican challenger Ronald Reagan was happy to debate Carter, Anderson, or both. The League of Women Voters threatened to hold the debate with an empty chair to represent Jimmy Carter, though this ultimately was not done.

On October 2, 1988 the LWV held a press conference and announced that they would no longer sponsor the presidential debates. Then LWV president Nancy Neuman explained that leading up to the 1988 debates, the major political parties had set up their own commission and planned on holding their own debates. Additionally, the major party candidates would not participate in those held by the LWV unless they were willing to give up control of aspects like what was allowed to be photographed, who was allowed to ask questions, and other points of manipulation. The LWV preferred to not participate rather saying,

“The demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates’ organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”

The presidential debates were once some of the most watched television events, the 1960 debate boasting over 66 million viewers and the 1980 debate reaching 80 million. Recent debates have had far lower viewership, reaching a high point of 67 million in 2012 which isn’t much considering the population has increased by nearly 140 million since 1960. One reason just might be that American voters’ can see through the political theater and have decided they’d rather be uninformed than manipulated.

It’s common for politicians to wag their fingers at partisan politics, but should we really be surprised when the majority parties control so much of the narrative? Liberal love to talk the virtues of diversity, but it was a Democrat who said no to John Anderson and intellectual diversity in 1980. Conservatives supposedly believe in the power of competition, but it was a Republican who feared political competition from Ross Perot in 1996. It is time for us, voters, journalists, politicians, and presidents to do the right thing and truly open the debates so we can create a free market of ideas and allow American voters to weigh them, measure them, and decide for themselves.