It's looking like 2010 is going to be a year of anti-incumbent insurgency. I'm wondering if there's any interest from readers with the skill and the wherewithal to organize this sort of thing in setting up a political action committee to fund candidates for Congress who believe in what you might call the Wendell Berry/Front Porch Republic worldview? At FPR, Mark T. Mitchell recently set down what he thinks would be a good platform for people of the left and the right disgusted with the political status quo. He wrote:
Many political analysts are suggesting that this race may be a bell-weather indicating the fortunes of the Obama agenda. But even more, this could portend the rumblings of a challenge to the dominant two parties in America. Recent polls suggest that the vast majority of Americans think we are on the wrong track. Another indicates that fully a half of voters would like to see a viable third party.What are the prospects of galvanizing this dissatisfaction into a coherent challenge to the entrenched people and interests of both the Democrats and the Republicans? On the one hand, it may be that the general dissatisfaction is real but is coming from far left, far right and everywhere in between. If so, then the prospect of a viable third party emerging from that morass is unlikely. On the other hand, perhaps, despite the differences, there is a significant portion of Americans who could rally around a platform that addresses some of the most urgent concerns underlying the pervasive dissatisfaction with the status quo. While this is merely a preliminary attempt to articulate the broad parameters of such a platform, here are ten positions that might fit the bill.
Read the whole thing to see the particulars he thinks we could unite around.
Take a look at that, and tell me if you'd have any interest in helping form, and/or contributing to, a PAC that backed candidates who generally shared that political orientation? I know I would. But how do we do this?
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The only third party that would interest me would be a "No 'count" party. Its constituency would be the people whose votes don't count because their state always goes for the other party; its motto would be 'waste your vote on us'; and its one platform plank would be to abolish the electoral college.
It wouldn't win, but it might very well get enough votes to scare the other two parties into doing something.
Brian, Front Porch did take on the gay marriage and abortion issues in a separate follow-up post, and made a good start at explaining why he didn't even include them in the first list, and how they might play out.
Daniel is correct, the focus of this thread should be the nuts and bolts of organization. It would seem too late to mount an effective 3rd party organizational attempt for 2010, so Rod's discussion of pursuing a PAC is the sounder ploy. That process is profoundly easy and can be downloaded from the FEC web site.
http://www.fec.gov/info/toolkit.shtml#nonconnected
Thinking long term, these particular talking points are effectively Paulite/Tea Party boilerplate with a little enviromentalism as window dressing. The adherents would be wiser to remain in the GOP and continue subverting the GOP apparatus IMO.
I think a PAC is definitely the way to go in trying to establish some sort of viable third way between the two parties, especially this late in the game. As has probably been mentioned, I didn't read all the posts, this could be best accomplished by a self funding candidate who had the ability to galvanize grassroots support. Hopefully, someone unlike Perot, who didn't turn out completely crazy and discredit any ideas they had.
The only issue I had with the ten points mentioned, is the acceptance of some sort of sales tax. In theory, it is better than an income tax, but your just going to wind up with both. The bigger issue is trimming down, and streamlining, the cost of govt services. I believe that fits under the banner of fiscal responsibility.
Finally, I think we should never forget the importance of term limits on elected officials. This has lost a lot of steam since the Contract with America (which basically ruined and discredited all sorts of ideas), but t.l. would go a long way in ending some of the other practices you worry about.
Anyways, I definitely think some sort of organization funding candidates who essentially promise to give everyone hell is a great idea. There needs to be some check on the two parties abilities to dominate everything in their path, and at this point the only avenues seem to be in the primaries.
Rod,
I would be interested and raise my hand as a Front Porch sympathizer.
...how do we do it? Wow...where to begin? that might take some time to write up. Number 1 that comes to mind: money. Perhaps that's where to begin. Donations to the said party as a non-profit so that things can be mobilized and come together. Without mobilization in the way supporters, strategy, etc., nothing happens and we keep on blogging (not that there's anything wrong with that and the practice should never stop).
Thanks for asking the question. Unfortunately I don't have time to add anything further at the moment. I'm ready to roll, though, and I know there's other people who would be as well that I know
-J
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