In 1988, the League of Women Voters (LWV) withdrew from sponsorship of the televised presidential debates because it would not lend its trusted name to the political theater of the two-party duopoly. Their public statement of withdrawal was so powerful and prophetic that it continues to resonate deeply with voters and non-voters, over 30 years later.
Unfortunately, the League has not spoken out as powerfully since they were forced out of hosting presidential debates by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.
At a time when the nation needs the fierce nonpartisanship of a trusted debate host like the League, we are calling on them to step back up to the plate and #TakeBackTheDebates for We, the People.
We are asking all LWV state and local chapters to chime in on the issue and ask LWV national to reassert its important independent voice during this critical election.
We are asking everyone who reads this to sign our petition to the League and share it broadly to your networks.
Since the League’s mission is to encourage informed and active participation in government, and to provide voters with nonpartisan election information, we also ask everyone who signs our petition to consider joining the League and speaking up—as a member—to your local and state chapters, as well as national.
Because the League’s 1988 statement continues to be so potent, we republish it here in its entirety. Please read it and share it as the must-read critique of the duopoly’s phony debates “commission” that it is. And it can’t hurt to thank the LWV for its stunning clarity.
League Refuses to “Help Perpetrate a Fraud”
10/3/1988
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 3, 1988
LEAGUE REFUSES TO “HELP PERPETRATE A FRAUD”
WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FROM FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
WASHINGTON, DC —”The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debate scheduled for mid-October because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter,” League President Nancy M. Neuman said today.
“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 honest answers to tough questions,” Neuman said. “The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”
Neuman said that the campaigns presented the League with their debate agreement on
September 28, two weeks before the scheduled debate. The campaigns’ agreement was negotiated “behind closed doors” and vas presented to the League as “a done deal,” she said, its 16 pages of conditions not subject to negotiation.
Most objectionable to the League, Neuman said, were conditions in the agreement that gave the campaigns unprecedented control over the proceedings. Neuman called “outrageous” the campaigns’ demands that they control the selection of questioners, the composition of the audience, hall access for the press and other issues.
“The campaigns’ agreement is a closed-door masterpiece,” Neuman said. “Never in the history of the League of Women Voters have two candidates’ organizations come to us with such stringent, unyielding and self-serving demands.”
Neuman said she and the League regretted that the American people have had no real opportunities to judge the presidential nominees outside of campaign-controlled environments.
“On the threshold of a new millenium, this country remains the brightest hope for all who cherish free speech and open debate,” Neuman said. “Americans deserve to see and hear the men who would be president face each other in a debate on the hard and complex issues critical to our progress into the next century.”
Neuman issued a final challenge to both Vice President Bush and Governor Dukakis to “rise above your handlers and agree to join us in presenting the fair and full discussion the American public expects of a League of Women Voters debate.”