Unity08: More "boomlets" - Developing Democracy and David Broder

DEVELOPING DEMOCRACY
John Opdycke, Editor June 2, 2006
Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal penned a very interesting editorial this week about the “small boomlet of talk” surrounding Unity ’08, the new internet-based entity seeking to mobilize voters and present a bi-partisan presidential slate in 2008.

Noonan writes “Unity seems to me to have America's growing desire for more political options right. But I think they've got the description of the problem wrong.”

Noonan challenges Unity 08’s belief that the Democrats (too far left) and Republicans (too far right) alienate people “in the middle” and argues that the problem is not a horizontal one between left and right but a vertical one between Washington’s bi-partisan political elite and the American people.

It is an excellent editorial and reminiscent of Jackie Salit’s “The Emerging Independent Minority” (published in the Spring 2004 issue of the The Neo-Independent) Like Noonan, Salit challenges the notion that political salvation lies in the center and explores the “new paradigm emerging that is more about the insiders and the outsiders than about left, right and center” and the independent voters who are driving that shift.

In addition to Noonan, other journalists have been are writing about the independent voter and the possibility of a third party candidacy in 2008. The LA Times ran an excellent article about the growing independence of California voters. In May, New York Magazine devoted an entire issue to the need for a “Purple Party” (Not red, not blue, but purple…get it?). CBS News’ Dick Meyers writes “I think it's pretty much a done deal that a well-financed, hyper-competent third party will make a serious run at the White House in 2008 backed by a slate of superstar Senate candidates.” Even Thomas Friedman of the New York Times (yes, the same newspaper that in 2005 told readers that under no uncertain terms should they vote on the Independence Party line) is urging the creation of an “American Renewal Party.”

The articles cites as evidence the record dissatisfaction with the President and Congress, the dismay over Washington pay-to play politics and runaway partisanship, and the blossoming number of independent voters - now 38% of the electorate.

In the midst of this renewed interest in the independent voter and third party politics, CUIP will be launching our new website, www.independentvoting.org on July 4th. Independent voting.org is a comprehensive site dedicated to informing, involving and educating independent-minded Americans from coast to coast. Stay tuned for the official launch!

Plus, David Broder had this to say about that:
A little bipartisan cooperation could go a long way 06/04/2006 Gwinnett Daily Post WASHINGTON David Broder June 4 ...But there undoubtedly is a hunger in the land for consensus and an end to partisanship. A more straightforward answer would come from a credible independent presidential candidacy or an agreement by credentialed figures from the two parties to form a ticket. The rigmarole of an Internet convention could give way, then, to an actual campaign. ....