A third party candidate needs a third party. Introducing: Unity08. I was directed here as I was reading Newsweek in the lobby of my ophthalmologist today. Works for me…
Unity08: Our Beliefs, Our Goals & Why We’ll Succeed
- Who We Are
- What We Believe
- Our Goals
- Unity08 on Lobbying and Corruption
- Unity08 On the Issues
- Why Unity08 Will Succeed
Who We Are
Unity08 is a group of citizens deeply concerned that the wheels have come off our political system, that the American Dream is slipping away, and that time is short to get things back on track.
We are of all ages, backgrounds, colors and beliefs and from both parties:
- Some of us have been involved in political campaigns at the state and national levels and served in high government positions.
- Others of our leadership group have never been active in political life but have been highly successful in the private sector, active in the non-profit world and in other walks of American life.
- Still others of our leadership group are students, who are concerned that the agenda of special interests is coming before the national interest.
What We BelieveUnity08 believes that neither of today’s major parties reflects the aspirations, fears or will of the majority of Americans. Both have polarized and alienated the people. Both are unduly influenced by single-issue groups. Both are excessively dominated by money.
For most of the 20th Century, the contest for the U.S. presidency was waged over those “in the middle.” Recent Presidential elections, however, have not been focused on the middle but on the turnout of each party’s special interest groups — with each party’s “base” representing barely ten percent of the American people.
We believe that, while the leaders of both major parties are well intentioned people, they are trapped in a flawed system — and that the two major parties are today simply neither relevant to the issues and challenges of the 21st Century nor effective in addressing them.
As a result, most Americans have not been enthusiastic about the choices for President in recent elections, the key issues they ran on, or the manner in which the campaigns were conducted.
Therefore Unity08 will act to assure that an alternative ticket is presented to the American voters in 2008.
Our Goals
We have set three specific goals, and are exploring how best to achieve them.
- Goal One is the election of a Unity Ticket for President and Vice-President of the United States in 2008 — headed by a woman and/or man from each major party or by an independent who presents a Unity Team from both parties.
- Goal Two is for the people themselves to pick that Unity Ticket in the first half of 2008 — via a virtual and secure online convention in which all American voters will be qualified to vote.
- Goal Three is for the delegates to that convention to select the issues which are crucial to America’s future and the questions on those crucial issues which the candidates should address fully and candidly.
The new ground broken in meeting our goals will include new choices for voters, new opportunities for candidates, and new uses of modern technology as well. In pursuing our goals, we will both follow the law in every instance and seek the opinion of the Federal Elections Commission to interpret the law where we are breaking new ground.
We are not looking to build a new and permanent party. That might happen, but our objective is to fix the old parties. A Unity Ticket in office for one term or even taking part in just one election can bring new ideas, new integrity and new leaders to the fore.
We will not waste time assessing blame. Both parties and all of us who have been active in them share responsibility for the current political morass. We hope instead to return the focus of our politics and policy to the common good — those ideas and traditions which unite and empower us as individuals and as a people.
Unity08 on Lobbying and Corruption
Unity08 strongly believes the corrupting influence of special interest money is a major cause of today’s fundamentally broken political system. Lobbyist money plus pandering to the intense ideological bases by both parties yields the blame-game partisan bickering that has destroyed voter confidence. No other issue will get solved until this one does.
Unity08 intends to fix this broken system by electing a bipartisan “Unity Ticket” to the White House in ‘08 funded solely by small-dollar donations from everyday Americans. As a result the Unity08 President and Vice President will enter office not with favors owed to lobbyists and special interests but with a clear mandate from the American people to cooperate and provide courageous leadership on the most crucial, complex issues facing our country.
Want to better understand why Unity08 feels so strongly about this subject? Click here…
Unity08 on the Issues
Unity08 divides issues facing the country into two categories: Crucial Issues — on which America’s future safety and welfare depend; and Important Issues — which, while vital to some, will not, in our judgment, determine the fate or future of the United States.
In our opinion, Crucial Issues include: Global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our young, the health care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream for so many of our people.
By contrast, we consider gun control, abortion and gay marriage important issues, worthy of debate and discussion in a free society, but not issues that should dominate or even crowd our national agenda.
In our opinion — since the disintegration of the Soviet Union — our political system seems to have focused more attention on the “important issues” than the “crucial issues.” One result: The political parties have been built to address the interests of their “base” but have failed to address the realities that impact most Americans.
Why Unity08 Will Succeed
Here are four reasons we believe the Unity08 movement will succeed:
- The American people know that the current political system is broken and that the time is short to fix it.
- A solidly-funded movement of millions of Americans can be built online in order to nominate a Unity Ticket of their choice for 2008.
- Seeing the numbers, leaders in both parties will see that a Unity Ticket in 2008 represents the jolt the political system needs to get back on track.
- The tens of millions of Americans who have not been voting out of cynicism toward the current system are likely to rally to new leadership with a new approach.
The genius of America is that every generation redefines freedom in its own terms for its own times. Unity08, in a tradition as old as our country itself, is committed to still another rebirth of freedom.
For more information about Unity08, please view the Frequently Asked Questions page and the Governance page.
The above was copied (with difficulty) from the Unity08 website. Okay, so if Bloomberg makes sense as a third party candidate, and these folks have been working to get onto the ballots in all 50 states, I sense a convergence of interests, including mine! Can you now see today’s progression, from the Economist’s dimwit voters, to the enlightened voter’s candidate, to the enlightened voter’s party? Logical, huh! Surprised myself. Whew! I think I’ll go lie down and think about all of this. But, as I’ve said for a week now, I am intrigued.
Technorati Tags: Unity08, third party, 2008 presidential campaign, Miichael Bloomberg
Unity08
Left-handed Complement 
My problem with unity08 is that they are not a third party. They are calling for a ticket made up of one of each of the two major parties. This seems to me to be the worst of both worlds. We need one or more really independent third party tickets. I think we are going to have 4 tickets without unity08. The dem, repub, bloomberg, and Nader tickets. The way things are going there might be several other viable third party tickets as well. I can’t see how having one repub and one dem will get them any votes. Now if they pick a ticket without a dem OR a repub, that would make them a real alternative. In my view, the dems and repubs are in cahoots. We need to get rid of them both.
The scientifically impossible I do right away
The spiritually miraculous takes a bit longer
Party labels are not as rock solid as when I was coming up in the world, ClapSo. Of course, neither are the concept of integrity and the Bill of Rights, to name just two examples. I believe that the Volvo drivers of this country have moved beyond Ralphie, and everyone is ready for something, if not new, at least repackaged. Bloomberg has made an art of repackaging lately — perhaps there are other competent leaders out there looking for the way out of business as usual. Thanks for dropping by! –Mudge
As a member of the Rules Committee of Unity08, I’d like to clear up some confusion. In our Draft Rules, which can be found at http://www.unity08.com/draft_rules#rules_top, the only mention we make of party membership occurs when we define the qualifications of the Vice President in Rule 3.3.
We state:
“he or she may not be a member of the same major political party (Democrat or Republican) as the Presidential Candidate with whom they will seek to form a Unity08 Ticket. Questions of party “membership” will be reviewed and resolved by the Rules Committee.”
In other words, while we do prohibit tickets composed of members of the same party, we are open to Independents in either or both positions of the ticket. We are excited by the prospect of some non-conventional Independent candidates, and we’re looking forward to welcoming some old time politicians who want to give up blame-game politics and join up with us. It’s going to be an exciting primary and an exciting campaign. And I for one, though perhaps I’m a little biased, think you should try us out at http://www.unity08.com.
And let me ask you a question: who would make up your dream ticket?
Thanks for listening to my ranting and raving, and if you’d like to get involved in any way, please email me at wfogel@unity08.com.
–Will
Hi Will,
Actually, I registered with unity08 about a month ago, so I’ve seen all the talking points 😉 . When I tried to pick MY dream ticket, made up of two independents the program refused to except them and insisted I had to pick two candidates from “different parties.” It considered all independent candidates AS IN THE SAME PARTY. I sent an email about this to unity08 and never received a reply.
Hi mudge,
You make my point with “Party labels are not as rock solid as when I was coming up in the world…” That’s the problem. The dems and repubs are not the parties of old that had real differences in policy. The two parties SAY different things, but when in power they DO the SAME THINGS. There is no real difference between them. That is why the last two presidential elections were so close, people can’t find much difference between the two parties. Oh, I’m 48 with two sons in their twenties so I remember the old days too.
The scientifically impossible I do right away
The spiritually miraculous takes a bit longer
Thank you for letting us know about the Dream ticket. Like Will, I am involved with Unity08 as a founding member. I’m very sorry no one ever got back to you. Basically, the rules state that there have to be people from the two major parties on the team (i.e. in the cabinet). Theoretically, two independent candidates could be the President and Vice President, so that is a glitch in the way our website is programmed that you are unable to draft an independent dream ticket. They would, however, have to include members of the major party in the cabinet because we want to ensure that we bring the government together, not just create more divisions. I hope that helps clear things up. If you have any question, don’t hesitate to e-mail me at mdiamond@unity08.com
Thanks!
Best,
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
My view is that our countries problems stem, not from the DIS-UNITY of the dems and repubs, but from what they are UNITED and AGREE UPON:
The war in Iraq was started by BOTH the dems and repubs. Both parties now AGREE TO CONTINUE FUNDING IT.
Immigration; Both parties AGREE that greedy employers should be able to economically exploit these non-citizens to fatten the corporate bottom line.
The national debt has gone through the roof do to out of control MILITARY SPENDING. There is every proof that the dems and repubs AGREE TO CONTINUE THIS.
On the national health care front we get nothing but talk. Our healthcare system is a complete failure and the dems and repubs AGREE TO ALLOW IT TO CONTINUE TO FAIL!
Bringing these two failed parties together is not going to change a thing. WE NEED VOTE AS MANY DEMS AND REPUBS OUT AS WE CAN COME THE 2008 ELECTION!
The scientifically impossible I do right away
The spiritually miraculous takes a bit longer
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