Independents Rising and The Parties Versus The People: Bring It On!

JACKIE SALIT'S INDEPENDENTS RISING
Author Sees Improved Discourse As Key To 2012 Presidential Election Outcome (By John Ostapkovich, CBS PHILLY) “I think independents are looking to see whether the president or his opponent are going to give voice to this central issue in American politics today, which is overcoming political partisanship,” she says.



If you have not already picked up a copy of Jackie Salit's new book Independents Rising, time's a-wastin'! And you can read Hankster chapter by chapter reviews here, here, and here -- and stay tuned for more! Utah League of Independent Voters [on Facebook as Utah League of Independent Voters] founder Randy Miller and I are the relay team, and watch for Independent Kentucky's [on Facebook as Independent Kentucky] Chairman Michael Lewis's review of Chapter 8...


And by the way, The Hankster has a Facebook page too -- hope you'll like it!


MICKEY EDWARDS' THE PARTIES VERSUS THE PEOPLE
Can we fix a hyper-partisan Congress? (By Mickey Edwards, Special to CNN) It surprises me still to hear people express amazement at the hyper-partisan nature of Congress and its resulting inability to deal collectively with the nation's problems. In a constitutional system that places most of the federal government's real power with the peoples' representatives, that is a serious problem.

Former Congressman Mickey Edwards is a lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also a vice president of the Aspen Institute and director of the Institute’s Aspen-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership program. His new book The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans is in stores and online now.


Edwards and Salit were featured guests at Cathy L. Stewart's Politics for the People monthly forum both last April talking about their books. Video snipits below. 

The Second Class Status of Independent Voters

In such a heavily controlled political environment where entrenched parties have their way with the America people, lots of voters are declaring their independence. Bob Fliegel answers his own question in his letter below (and those are some pretty good reasons!), and Paul Krugman insults the sector of the electorate that gives voice to the need for innovation and new policy.

Meanwile, the Committee for a Unified Independent Party/ IndependentVoting.org
has launched a campaign calling for Congressional hearings on the second class status of indies -- the purpose is two-fold:  1) To educate Congress and shine a light on the effect of partisan control of the election process, namely that 40% of Americans have a second class status; and 2) to urge Congress to investigate these biases by holding hearings.

• Letter: Independent voters make party choices (By BOB FLIEGEL , St. Augustine.com) If truth be told, the typical independent is already strongly predisposed to vote for candidates of the same party and will always do so 99 percent of the time. Why then do they shrink from acknowledging their de facto party allegiance and seek refuge in the independent label?
• Psychodrama Queens (Paul Krugman, NY Times/The Conscience of a Liberal) Oh, and about independent voters: if you think that they’re strong-minded, solid citizens repelled by the partisanship — well, there may be a guy like that somewhere in America. But by and large, given the vast differences between the parties these days, independent voters are basically confused, clueless people — not exactly the kind of people likely to take reassurance from Obama’s stance on entitlement programs. On the contrary, they’re the sort of people likely to be stampeded by “Obama wants to raise the Medicare age!”
• Congressional Hearings on Second Class Status of Independent Voters (IndependentVoting.org) New York County Independence Party Chair Cathy Stewart, and Vice Chair, Alvaader Frazier, Esq. met with Congressman Edolphus Towns.  Rep. Towns from Brooklyn, who is a member of the Subcommittee on Government Organization, Efficiency and Financial Managementva, unhesitantly said that he would like to help, that Congress should hold hearings to explore the barriers independents face, and that it is important to work to expand the number of people that are participating. Read our campaign's first newsletter here for more about what's going on around the country.