The presidential and vice presidential debates are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Since the CPD took over running the debates in 1988, only once has a third party candidate been allowed to participate. The dominance of the two major parties at the debates has critics charging that the system is effectively rigged to shut out other voices. George Farah, author and the executive director of Open Debates, calls the 15% criteria absurdly high, noting that candidates who reach 5% support qualify for public funding. Third parties have played a critical role in raising issues that are critical to the conversation in this country. When you exclude them from the debate, you have a sort of ideological containment.
For a true free country, all parties must be allowed in debates