Also-rans are off the rails

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				THE
Column Archive				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Also-rans are off the rails				October 25, 2006

I’d bet the farm that more than 90% of the people in these parts have no idea who Marvin Pixton III or Gail Parker are. Yet, they will be on the ballot in November. Pixton is running for Congress against Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-1^st) and Democrat Shawn O’Donnell, while Parker is taking aim at the Senate seat now held by Sen. George Allen. Both are running under the banner of the Virginia Independent Green Party.

As they buck our well-entrenched two-party system, Pixton and Parker are encountering what most independent voices in this country face: poverty, invisibility and oblivion. With little money in their war chests, they can ill-afford to run monstrously expensive ads on network television. They’re almost always excluded from debates that would get their names and platforms before the public.

Organizations that run debates, such as the League of Women Voters and other civic groups, contend that including independents in debates is meaningless unless they are either garnering 15% of the vote in recent polls or have a chance to win. In other words, independents are generally considered to be scatterbrained scapegraces for daring to thwart the powerballs of politics known as Republicans and Democrats.

Yet, if the debate criteria were pushed to their logical limits, Davis would be debating herself. I know of no polls in the O’Donnell-Davis race, and hence O’Donnell can’t be shown to have the support of at least 15% of the voters. Nor does he have any chance of winning. But he will be allowed to debate Davis. Pixton will not.

O’Donnell is a Democrat. Pixton is an independent Green guy. Ergo, no seat at the table. Either you get with the two-party program and squeeze yourself into the Republican or Democratic mold, or you’re out. Kaput.

Conversely, in the senatorial race in Connecticut, Republican Alan Schlesinger is sucking up about 5% of the vote in recent polls. He has no chance of winning. But he’s allowed to debate the vacuously virtuous Joe Lieberman and Democrat Ned Lamont. Why? Because he’s a Republican. He’s part of the system.

I have never met Pixton or Parker, and hence have no idea whether they’re nutcases or not. Gail “for Rail” Parker, as she calls herself, looks for all the world like Bette Midler, and Pixton reminds one of an avuncular guidance counselor. What I do know, however, is that we in this area have a massive transportation problem, and both Parker and Pixton are advocates of getting people off the highways and onto high speed rail.

Among other things, Pixton proposes that we divert some federal highway funds to the development of rail service and that states provide matching funds. Parker says essentially the same thing, though she’s interested in paying off the federal debt and creating auditable accounting systems for government agencies like the Pentagon. She would halt no-bid contracts, such as those enjoyed by Halliburton, and put the savings into high speed rail systems.

Are these loony proposals? I have no idea, but it seems to me that any discussion of the transportation sludge that we’re slogging around in should include viable alternatives to highways and clogged interstates. Obviously Pixton and Parker have studied the problem extensively, so why can’t we listen to what they have to say?

I for one would love to hear how both these candidates would respond to Allen and Davis relative to the total lack of Republican support for Amtrak. It wasn’t until Amtrak threatened to cut one of its trains to Williamsburg that the two Republicans took note of the fact that their former budget-slashing for the railroad might hit home. To her credit, Davis eventually supported an additional $240 million for a bedraggled railroad that is, thanks to President Bush’s latest budget, running on diesel fumes.

Both Pixton and Parker have advanced degrees in business administration and both have been active in the military. According to his website, Pixton got an advanced business degree from Pepperdine University, attended the Naval Flight School, the Naval War College and was a colonel in the Marines during the war in Vietnam. He had two tours of duty there and was involved in 872 combat missions. Parker served in the Air Force. Neither appears to be an intellectual boob.

It is indeed a shame that our alleged democracy has evolved into an exclusive political corporate club that admits only two parties. We live in a country whose politicians are so beholden to corporate lucre and corporate control of the media that we are depriving ourselves of the free-wheeling discussions that make the concept of democracy meaningful.

Given the overwhelming political mess in which we find ourselves these days, we should be encouraging, not stifling, those voices that come from beyond the entrenched clubbiness of our two-party system. Whether the people to whom those voices belong have a chance of winning should count not a whit.