Students and faculty stand by ideology
in their support of third-party presidential candidates; votes are not wasted, they say.
Crystal Luong
Assistant News Editor
Nader? Badnarik? Cobb? Some students may wonder who these men are.
Ralph Nader, perhaps the more recognizable name of the third-party presidential candidates, may trigger memories as the man who was accused of causing Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race.
As the war intensifies between Republicans and Democrats, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, third-party candidates once again are fighting uphill battles for the White House. Their efforts are finding faint yet growing traces of support in the Pepperdine community.
Dr. Gary Galles, professor of economics, is a declared Libertarian Party member and has voted according to his party lines in the past four elections.
“I’m definitely out of the mainstream,” Galles said, “but the mainstream is out of place.”
As a Libertarian, he stands by the party’s main focus: minimal government intervention in favor of a free-market economy, free trade and personal freedom.
“Nothing teaches you more about how ineffective government is than studying it for 20 years,” said Galles, who will support Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik on Election Day.
Freshman Trey Brown, an international studies major, also plans to swing his support to Badnarik, a Texas constitutional scholar who has qualified for 48 state ballots. Brown is starting Pepperdine’s first Young Libertarians chapter this fall.
Brown said he noticed the dominance of the College Republicans and Young Democrats on campus and wondered if there were others who shared his alternative views.
“I felt the imperative to start it up,” Brown said.
He characterizes the University’s political climate as “ridiculously conservative.” Opposing views, however, are not foreign to him. Brown is from Bush’s GOP-hotbed hometown of Midland, Texas.
“I like being in an environment that challenges me because that makes my views stronger,” he said.
The Young Libertarians have about 20 members.
Although Badnarik has qualified for the California ballot, Nader, who won 2.7 percent of the popular vote under the Green Party ticket in 2000, has failed to do so.
Junior Andrew Hockman is among more than 100 college campus coordinators nationwide who have joined Nader’s now independent campaign.
“There are alternatives to the two-party system,” he said. “I see myself supporting Nader because he really speaks to the concerns I have.”
These issues include support of universal heath coverage and gay marriage and opposition to the Patriot Act and U.S. occupation of Iraq, Hockman said.
“They’re huge issues that the other two parties oppose,” he said.
Hockman is in the process of starting a campus chapter of Students for Nader. He recognizes that Nader will not win the presidency but said “there is no such thing as a wasted vote.”
Dr. Stan Moore, professor of political science, said he does not think third-party supporters are making wise voting decisions.
“They’re Don Quixotes jostling against windmills,” Moore said. “They’re throwing their vote away in a very meaningful year.”
For Galles, those who disregard third-party candidates are mistaken.
“The wasted vote fallacy is wrong,” he said. Although he also acknowledges that his third-party candidate will not win, that won’t stop him.
“I vote as a form of cheerleading,” Galles said. “You can’t change the outcome, so you vote for what’s right.”
Brown does not think his vote will be wasted on Badnarik, either.
“If you promote a candidate on principle, the issues he stands for can be realized by other candidates and parties,” he said.
It also makes sense logically, Brown said.
“Say you have a 45 percent chance of lethal injection, 45 percent of getting hanged and 10 percent of escape,” Brown said. “You should take that chance of escape.”
09-23-2004