Submitted by Joshua Fauver
Perhaps you, like so many other third party activists, remember very fondly the Open Debates that were hosted by Free and Equal in 2012. Being that I was involved (while slightly) I know I remember those debates with a slight grin on my face. I’m sure those of you have been involved much longer than I were thrilled to see a debate take place between third party presidential candidates, and to have a celebrity moderator of the caliber of Larry King. How would you like to have that again in 2016? How about 10 times?
A coalition is in the process of being formed to make that very thing happen! Building off the phenomenal success had by Free and Equal The Coalition for Open Debates 2016 is building a broad coalition of third party activists, alternative medias, organizations etc. to attempt to brake the stranglehold had on the political process by the Commission on Presidential Debates. They plan on bringing in more celebrity moderators, building a massive coalition (to build off of the 57 media and organization sponsors F&E had for the 2012 debates.), attempting to start the CPD of the money coming in from sponsors (as we saw activists successfully cost the CPD the sponsorship of two companies and one organization), and finally hosting 10 debates starting in the summer of 2016.
So just who is involved with this coalition? Well the effort is being headed by Zak Carter, a retired Iraq war veteran who served as Free and Equal Election Foundation’s communication director and co-produced two open debates that were moderated by Larry King and Thom Hartmann and viewed by an estimated global audience of 20 million people. Mr. Carter is not alone, Ben Swann is also involved in the coalition as well as Robin Koerner.
The Coalition for Open Debates in 2016 is looking for citizens to become involved in a massive Citizen’s Coalition and their Coalition for Organization in Media. I’m confident that this new coalition has the potential to do something great. Already powerhouses in the third party movement like the Independent Voter Network, Ben Swann, and Kriss Anne Hall are behind this movement.
If you’d like more information concerning the Coalition for Open Debates 2016 I’d encourage you to check out their website.
Well Joshua shared it first, and thanks for the work!
Paulie, thank you so much for sharing this here. If anyone has any questions or suggestions, I can be reached at 206-551-8704 and [email protected]
We already have more MSM interest in this effort than we had for last years debates, (and bigger coalition members) I’m confident we’ll be a steamroller by the time 2016 gets here!
(and I’m looking forward to it Darryl!)
Zak Carter has been confirmed as a guest for the Jan 19 episode of Peace, Love, Liberty Radio
Truer words have perhaps never been typed. If people and organizations get on this project this early, we have a chance at making something like this happen.
Happy to help in whatever ways I can. We need to make this happen for our future’s sake.
No sir, thank you!
No need to take it down. I’ll just switch it in dashboard, that’s easy enough to do.
Great article….thanks! And thank you for you work on this.
Paulie,
Yes sir I wrote it. I apologize if I did so in a way inappropriate for IPR. I can take it down and let you author it if you’d like.
Now if we can just get this on a national TV network other than C-SPAN.
Joshua
Thanks for posting this.
It is written in the first person.
Did you write it? If yes, you should have someone else here be the IPR author since there are some opinion statements in the article. If not, please identify the author and/or source.