[RC] 3rd party Re: An opportunity to shift things to the center in Washin...

Mon Sep 25 21:42:50 EDT 2006

Ernie :
Essentially you are  right  -if the subject is a national party.  There is an
alternative, of course, creating a party in one state only, or maybe  a
limited number of states ( 3 or 4 , for example ). As you know
this is the strategy of one "wing" of the Libertarians. This is also
tradition in a few states where laws support 3rd parties, viz,
Minn, NY, Vermont, etc

In any eventuality, what we most need we simply do not have,
a "Name" supporter who can attract $$$. and public enthusiasm.
Without that, the alternative is "slogging it out in the trenches," 
building a movement or party the hard way, one individual at a time, 
all on a shoestring budget.

Somehow we need to win a RELEVANT celeb to our cause.
Either that or one of us finds a way to become a celeb.

One way might be to create our own TV show, which could be 
contributed to by anyone interested from any place in the country.
Necessarily this would need to be something like Infomercial stuff,
buying cheap time on late night TV, and picking those markets where  we
might actually win a few "converts" to the cause, and build from  there.

The BIG drawback, so far, is that we still lack a unified sense of
purpose, and we don't really have anything that can be called a
political platform, something that average voters could read and
become inspired by.

For what its worth, this ought to be a high priority, with the goal
being making a political difference by 2008, then focusing our  efforts
on actually achieving this goal. This would not preclude other  things,
like our sometimes fascinating discussions of various issues or
philosophical,views, but it would HAVE TO mean getting serious
about 2008. And that would have to mean developing a "for the public"
program no later than the Spring of  2007. 

As well, we could use the Web for this purpose, indeed, this is even
more imperative than late night TV. 

But are we really going to move in this direction ? 

Whatever the group does or does not do,   -and given the fact  that you
are stuck with me, since I have no plans to go someplace else-  what I  do
plan to do as soon as possible, is to test various waters on my own,
as a Radical Centrist with some kind of political activist purpose in  mind.
One or more others in the group might  want to set out on their own.  too,
even granting that they would also stay  part of RC.com After  all,
this site has high "value added" for all of us in various ways.

My comments for today
Billy

In a message dated 9/25/2006 5:16:44 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
drernie at radicalcentrism.org writes:

Hi  Jordan,

Interesting thoughts, but...

> Right now, we need a  group of people putting into place the
> infrastructure (party  registrations, identifying candidates, ballot
> access), required to  cover every Congressional race in the US and have
> a candidate on the  ballot in each and every state.
>
> With that in place we should  demand that this party - and the others
> which meet the same criteria  [candidate in every Congressional race
> and Presidenial candidate  access in every State/Commonwealth] - be
> given the exact same Federal  Election support given to the Republicans
> and Democrats.

Just  about every Centrist I know cherishes the idea of starting a   
third-party.  The question is, what would such a party -- built  on  
the broadest possible centrist common ground -- look  like?

The answer, frankly, is that it ends up looking an awful lot like  the  
Reform Party:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/  
Reform_Party_of_the_United_States_of_America

which is a severe  cautionary tale for anyone interested in pursuing  
that  option

I've pondered this question repeatedly, and always come to the  same  
answer:  if your goal is to build a large party, you will  necessarily  
fail.

The reason is that popularity, passion, and  unity are always in  
tension.  Either you diffuse passion to  maintain popularity and  
unity, stay small to maintain passion and  unity, or accept divergent  
passions which destroy unity (as happened  with the Reform Party).

What's the alternative?  Build a  "growable" party around very small  
set of core values, that enables  the maximum amount of diversity that  
does NOT threaten unity. Make  sure one of those very few values is  
reaching out to outsiders, and  that another is achieving dramatically  
"good" results.  Then  let it organically grow over a decade or two.

That way, if it works at  all, it works because it is founded on an  
enduring center -- not on  a foundation of sand (i.e., Ross Perot :-).

-enp

On Sep  20, 2006, at 5:26 PM, Jordan Dea-Mattson wrote:

> Hi All  -
>
> The following article
>  <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/us/politics/21pollcnd.html? 
>  pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=1d6476466a78a4a4&ex=1316404800&partner=rssnyt&  
> emc=rss>
> discusses the situation in Washington with  Congress (we know how it is
> with the President).
>
> I  believe the 2008 electoral cycle will provide a unique opportunity
> to  realign both the Executive and Legislative branches in a positive
>  way.
>
> The question is how to execute?
>
> Unity 08,  as currently structured, isn't the answer. They are going
> after the  Executive branch, but not the Legislative branch.
>
> Right now,  we need a group of people putting into place the
> infrastructure (party  registrations, identifying candidates, ballot
> access), required to  cover every Congressional race in the US and have
> a candidate on the  ballot in each and every state.
>
> With that in place we should  demand that this party - and the others
> which meet the same criteria  [candidate in every Congressional race
> and Presidenial candidate  access in every State/Commonwealth] - be
> given the exact same Federal  Election support given to the Republicans
> and  Democrats.
>
> If they don't meet this request, we should generate  a "hue and cry"
> through the media about how they are rigging the game  and stacking the
> deck to keep competition out of the  race.
>
> Just some thoughts...
>
>  Yours,
>
> Jordan
>
> -- 
>
> Jordan  Dea-Mattson
> jordan at dea-mattson.com
>
>  _______________________________________________
> Centroids mailing  list: Centroids at radicalcentrism.com
>  http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/ 
>  centroids_radicalcentrism.com
> Archives at  http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/ 
>  centroids_radicalcentrism.com/

_______________________________________________
Centroids  mailing list:  Centroids at radicalcentrism.com
http://radicalcentrism.com/mailman/listinfo/centroids_radicalcentrism.com
Archives  at  
http://radicalcentrism.org/pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/centroids_radicalcentrism.com/attachments/20060925/7b2cd4f6/attachment.html 