NATIONAL: Radical political reform - there's an organizing struggle out there to be had.

Brad Warthen at The State says there are enough independents to keep either of the major parties from being a majority..... And David Lindorff at Political Affairs (Marxist Thought Online) comments on the national Dems' possible endorsement of Joe Lieberman if he loses the primary and runs as an independent.... Meanwhile, here's another look at last week's Talk/Talk with Fred Newman and Jackie Salit, where Newman says independents could organize the country around radical political reform, and it's a struggle that takes place "on the ground":

Newman: I think that we have to teach independents that that’s exactly not the way to look at it, namely in terms of how it’s going to benefit the Republican vs. the Democrat. The independents have to work to communicate with each other to articulate a strong position about radical political reform. Then they go with whoever comes to them and says they will give expression to that position as part of what they’re going to stand for. That’s going to take a lot of work, a lot of communication, a lot of outreach. But there is a position there to communicate. And that’s what the independents have to be identified with, not just the swing vote. Because who cares who wins the election? This is a time for independents to play hard to get. Not hard to get between Republicans and Democrats, but hard to get relative to their own commitment to a position, which is radical political reform. What is radical political reform? Well, it’s a lot of different things. It goes all the way from local nonpartisan elections, as we tried in New York, the right to I&R, to changes in the voting machines. It goes from there all the way to national referenda. The full range. It goes to – and here we might have Hillary on our side – eliminating the electoral college. There are a lot of different planks to it, but in general, it stands for radical, popular political reform. It’s the critical threshold issue, I would argue. But that’s what’s got to be done on the ground, at the organizing level. You’ve got to build that movement. Is there a base for that movement? Yes. It’s the one third of the country that’s independent. Are they organized around that now? No. Are they there as a potential base to be organized in that way? Yes. Would it be exclusive? No. You could also organize Democrats and Republicans into that because there are some Democrats and Republicans who feel that way strongly, but are not satisfied with what their parties are doing. There’s an organizing struggle out there to be had. And independents can be full participants in it. The country’s gone one third independent. In fact, by some polls the independents are slightly ahead. But “independent” still means what it means, which is largely defined by Democrats and Republicans and is defined as swing voters. We progressive independents have to change that definition.... [more]