The response has been big and astounding. Keep it coming. We have just begun to fight to change American politics.
One concern raised by some needs to be addressed head on: Some experienced bloggers expect/want Unity08 to arrive with a specific platform position on every issue.
We repeat what we said in our statement of purpose: We will have an agenda, not a platform. Our agenda is the list of issues that the public feels are crucial that Washington is not addressing – energy independence, quality education, affordable health care, rising national debt and many more.
But we don’t come to this with a platform. We invite you to debate and offer solutions – and ultimately we invite candidates to run for President on the Unity08 banner with their own platform on the crucial issues.
We would stifle the debate if the web site has pre-determined answers. And most American voters know that the crucial issues are very complex, don’t have simple answers, and progress will require debate, discussion and maybe even consensus or compromise.
What’s sad and interesting is that in Washington none of those things are happening on any of the crucial issues. No debate, no discussion, no consensus and no compromise. Washington is polarized and paralyzed.
So to all who expect Unity08 to have all the answers and to be certain of everything, we may disappoint you. To those who relish debate, serious discussion, and finding candidates for leadership ready to discuss crucial issues seriously, we hope to excite you.
Spending a lot of time in Washington is dangerous for your mental health, apparently. But spending a lot of time watching Washington causes you to be very wary of two types: Those who need to read the polls before they know what they think – and those who seem certain of every answer even before the questions are asked.
At Unity08 our forum and our minds are open. Blog on!
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I would suggest a discussion of first principles and then a debate on the implications of those principles.
Just for starters, I would suggest that individual liberty is a core principle, with a corollary of individual responsibility. For me this outlines several key issues, from the right to bear arms (the ultimate protection against tyranny) to gay marriage (that the State has no business in a private contract between individuals, and certainly no business legislating theology).
A second principle might be a recognition that while market solutions are generally preferred, many of the assumptions inherent in theory do not always hold in reality and that market failure (and natural monopoly) does occur. Again, for my own part, I become more and more convinced that natural monopolies, such as utilities, ought to be publicly owned.
Finally, and this could be yet another corollary to the first principle, I'd suggest a reassertion that the powers of government are necessarily limited in scope. This presumption of governmental authority is leading us down a dark path.
Traveling that path it would seem that the first place we would need to begin is to define what our concept of government is; what we would expect of it; what would be its responsibilities ect...
I would bet we could debate just that aspect for months. I tend to agree with the general libertaian approach expressed fairly uniformly thus far. Small is good, but in the interests of social justice, in light of the extremly tilted playing field we are playing on today, government can not just step aside in the name of free markets. It has been tried and the experiment has failed. Also, in the realm of national defense, we need to keep on the table that what we do today in that regard should not be considered as a sacred cow. Proactive and overbearing is not the same. There are those who beleive that defense should be used for that purpose, defense. We, as a member of an international community of nations may need to rethink our role within that community.
Interesting.
But I wonder whether this movement is really up to the task. Or is it merely another form of corporate information management.
Is this movement prepared to stop the present charade of using "important" [social or cultural] issues as cover so as to fail to address the "crucial" [economic] issues of our time?
It would appear that more than a few folks who have read widely and deeply think our fundamental problem is the fact we have the best government that money can buy.
I found the new movie based on Chris Buckley's very funny book rather more mordant than funny -- all the fun of the book had drained away. It wasn't the fault of the actors or the script -- it was merely that when the book first came out it was such an outrageous, over-the-top presentation of the Washington K St. system that it seemed fresh and one could laugh. Surely reality would never become so absurd or resemble this book so closely ....
But yet we with a straight face speak of achieving Clear Skies and lower gasoline prices by, of course, suspending environmental regulations. That is, after all, the first thing we all should have thought meet, is it not?
Now that we've seen many more years under that K St system we've begun simply to bury ourselves under more and more lies until the very concept of the public interest has been all but lost.
As for politics and polarization, the debate over “liberal” versus “conservative” long ago became quite tiresome. It has become a mere word game thru which groups of people thought too educated and culturally elite are vilified by "regular" folks, who fancy they are somehow imbued with distinct and appropriate moral values -- notwithstanding the evidence.
The debate has been a setup -- provoked and stage managed by communication experts to cover up what is really at stake.
Going behind the word games -- I think our real political problems all can be boiled down quite simply to a fundamental conflict: A conservative, by his very nature, is bound to defend established privilege and to lean on the power of government for the protection of privilege.
The essence of the liberal position, however, is the denial of all privilege, if privilege is understood in its proper and original meaning of the state granting and protecting rights to some that are not available on equal terms to others.
To protect their privilege, including the ability to plunge into self-dealing while ignoring certain Constitutional rights or legal requirements as inconvenient using the mask of national security, conservatives find it convenient to smear all concepts of liberalism, classical as well as what passes for it these days. In doing so, they assassinate their own credibility.
Today, it would appear so-called “conservatives” merely feel threatened by so-called “liberals.” So they exaggerate most absurdly the “liberal” side of things.
The essence of the conservative complaint was nicely put by Willis Player, who said: “A liberal is someone whose interests aren’t at stake at the moment.”
This reduces the “conservative” complaint to something Thomas Sowell characterized and which in altered form I believe to be true of most who today call themselves “conservatives”: “The problem isn’t that [conservatives] can’t read. The problem isn’t even that [conservatives] can’t think. The problem is that [coinservatives] don’t know what thinking is; [they] confuse it with feeling.”
Today’s conservatives are really populist authoritarians.
They might be surprised by their similarity to those like them in other eras, especially post-Weimar Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. But that might require them to read and understand something of history.
Today’s “conservatives” I think you will find, do not read or think anything: they feel and believe things.
I say this due to the clear difference between the old "Bullmoose" political philosophy with which I identify myself and these “conservatives” who so blindly swear fealty to the arbitrary, capricious, and lawless swaggering of the present Administration and their ilk. Whereas those in authority apparently can do no wrong, even if it means outsourcing torture or manufacturing intelligence falsely to link an attack on the United States to Iraq, I hold with those who oppose in all its forms the exercise of arbitrary coercion in the name of the people.
The “rule of law” is not embedded in the arbitrary exercise of authority by men; the “rule of law” exists independent of men as the living body of principle by which the governed give their consent to those who govern.
So often one finds “liberals” accused of having “perverted” classical liberalism. Yet that shoe seems to me to be on the other foot and it is so-called “conservatives” who have betrayed and perverted their own classical roots and morphed them into a simulacrum of Benito Mussolini’s pathetic, corrupt and doomed Corporatism.
Tom Frank has the essence of the way I see things in his book "What's the Matter With Kansas."
I believe, as he does, that the terminal stupidity of the Democrats is largely to blame for the "backlash" that has put those whose economic status should make them vote Demoratic vote Republican instead.
All this is due to the Democrats' abandonment of the groups and of the fundamental issue of economic justice that comprised their coalition of voters and their agenda of ideas through the post-WW II era. They have sold out and simply become Republican "light," conceding the economic ground.
Democrats appear merely to have bought into the Republican game of hiding in plain sight using culture wars and social issues to mask the real political issues of our times, which IMHO are fundamentally economic in nature: energy policy, health care, jobs, pensions, trade policy and this country's crumbling sanitation and transportation infrastructure -- and all of this flowing from the continuing laissez faire looting of the country, the growing divide between haves too much and haves not enough.
The problem at the center of all this is the headlong fall into laissez faire capitalism, which we escaped from with great pain in the post-Civil War era. Learning nothing from our own history, we are doomed to repeat a lot of it.
Democrats, such as the Clintons, lack ideas because they have merely appropriated the brief of the genteel, moderate Republicans of another age -- thus, they are complicit in this Administration's rampaging Corporatism that is making the United States look more and more like Mussolini's kind of country.
The Democrats have abandoned any attempt to represent the classes beneath those with significant assets and might as well, like NASCAR drivers, wear their corporate sponsors' logos on their $3000 suits.
In other words, from where I stand, I see the various sects among Democrats as having chosen to represent particular corporate interests as opposed to other sets of corporate interests represented by various sects of Republicans.
No Democrat will point out that Republicans do NOT want to overturn Roe v. Wade, do NOT want to "win" the battle over gay rights, etc. because if the Republicans did win these battles they'd lose their ability to rally the knuckle-dragging, neolithic religious right.
The Meiers mess gave more people than usual a glimmer of that. The disgraceful Terry Shiavo display by Republican congressional leaders made it most painfully evident.
Why don't the Dems point out the fraud? Because they use the same techniques and hide using the same false issues: they simply run on the other side of the smoke and mirror nonsense that these so-called "important" issues represent instead of running on economic realities.
Not until Democrats or some altnernative movement returns to an earlier view, one articulated by my favorite Republican president, will true leadership emerge.
There is just one central principle in all this. Theodore Roosevelt put his finger directly on it:
"The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means."
And, as you well know, TR also said: "...our government, National and State, must be freed from the sinister influence or control of special interests. Exactly as the special interests of cotton and slavery threatened our political integrity before the Civil War, so now the great special business interests too often control and corrupt the men and methods of government for their own profit. We must drive the special interests out of politics. That is one of our tasks today. Every special interest is entitled to justice-full, fair, and complete-... For every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office. The Constitution guarantees protection to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation. "
I want to see a political movement embrace these key aspects of TR's Bullmoose agenda:
"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done. "
"...Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs. "
Let any new political movement stop identifying with and representing the plutocracy and rise up against it and I'll support it.
I firmly believe "the absence of effective State, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise."
Much of this revolves around the military budget, that of the Corps of Engineers and the "military-industrial complex." No wonder military services engage in deceit and illegal activity to avoid environmental liability -- they can barely get enough money out of the titantic defense budget to even minimally perform their mission -- let alone put enough troops in the field equipped to get the job done.
I wonder whether your "unity" movement is up to the task. It would be so easy to buy them off -- if they aren't already merely a ploy financed by the same old familiar household names.
My generation has come a cropper. We started out screaming about the evils of the "system" and the lies of the military industrial complex -- and we end up its servants and boosters -- a worse bunch of bottom dwellling, slime sucking, sewage eating scavengers than any number of catfish.
The corporatist owned media has made the web of lies so pervasive that the kids growing up since the 1960s have no sense of perspective with which to sense the fraud perpetrated on them. I found this to be the central joke in John LeCarre's 2024 book "Absolute Friends," and I think he's got it right this time.
So, I'm rather skeptical, I'm afraid, all said and done.
I think back to a song Phil Ochs used to sing: "I'm not marching anymore."
Hey, what do I know...
I've helped out a few local races and one Presidential. But other than that, all I am is:
A Mid-Westerner...
In a non-government job...
Middle Class...
College-educated, but non in poli-sci...
Votes every election...
Is associated with my party, but who puts up candidates I find who are more shells than of actual fire-in-the belly fight....
So, I have no inside knowledge...
No working experience. But here is what I know.
I'm tired of the extremes of both parties limiting the debate two issues that though important are not make or break issues. I'm tired of every issue having black/white answers, which they don't.
I want to see someone stand up on their own legs, not the parties. And fight for the 90% of this nation which goes to work, studies hard, enjoys its time off and deserves not to be taken advatage of by either tax cuts or well intentioned social programs.
Like I said, I vote, so at least I have a small say, in at all.
National security is surely a "crucial issue", and the foundation of a secure nation is secure borders.
The two major parties want the flood of illegal immigrants to continue, to ensure a supply of cheap labor (GOP) and votes (Dems). The Unity ticket should present an alternative to the American public - a candidate who will do more than pay lip service to secure borders.
That post smoked.
#applause#
It seems many of us like the idea of getting special interests out of congress' pockets; while I often write my Reps. and Senators linked to various interests (population, environment, health) I do believe that pulling that massive influx of cries away from them would allow them the time to actually get truthful and accurate information about our most important national needs - and perhaps make the right decisions instead of the coerced decisions we get.
So how can we do that? Is there any reason we cannot, as voters, rise up and tell our government that we want an experiment in democracy in THIS country? We do it all over the world, it's our chance to try something at home - our representatives now are not willing to take a risk like this, we have few with backbone, so we'll need to do it for them.
Part of the dual ticket (and I'd prefer not to see just Republicans and Democrats on that ticket) should be something about a 10-20 year experiment in disallowing lobbyists access to the nations leadership and stopping private funding of campaigns. The citizens of this nation, one human one vote, should then re-vote in 10-20 years to determine if we had good luck with this new system and want to keep it going.
BG
I love the idea but it seems flawed from the beginning when you talk about creating "unity" by possibly having a Democrat and a Republican on the same ticket. The Democrats and the Republicans are already what's wrong with our political system. As one person has already said: "We have the best system of politics/justice/ etc. that money can buy!"
In the best of all possible worlds that we might be able to elect such a Unity President and Vice-President, what could they accomplish? A Congress full of old-line Democrats and Republicans would keep them from ever accomplishing anything. Unless and until we could get a viable slate of candidates in every state in the Union, a third party President would be handcuffed by a corrupt Congress.
You'll have my support and I'm notifying all my friends of your homepage. I wish us all the greatest of success.
"Wishful thinking" it may be; but nothing has ever been accomplished without a dream and hard work. Let's kick the bums out!!
You are doomed from the beginning if you are afraid to use your real names. I'll take a wait and see attitude but if you do not identify yourselves how are we to know who you are? You could be NSA or CIA or DIA or ABCDEFG for all I know. Publius, indeed! Come out of the woodwork, Publius. Who are you and why should I support your so far anonymous cause?
Douglas K. Shaw
Mechanicsburg PA
Doesn't seem terribly anonymous to me:
http://unity08.com/founderscouncil
Although I do hope we'll see some "real" names here soon, in addition to what is surely a collective viewpoint for now.
We need to get money out of politics & government. No big expenditures for elections. X amount of TV time and newspaper space available at no cost to each candidate, who meets certain prerequisites. No lobbyist allowed. Anyone who needs advice on any subject is two phoone calls or less away from the needed expertise. Limit terms to 2 of 4 years for Congress persons. Presidential term limited to one term of six years.
Make taxation more simple. No deductions, no loopholes. etc. If you earn it, it is taxable. Eliminate corporate income tax. Its is regressive and causes too much conflict. Individual taxation to be more progressive for incomes in excess of $150,000. maybe a top rate of 60% for incomes in excess of 1,000,000. Raise a significant % of revenue via a sales tax. Get the budget somewhat in balance-ecconomic growth, tax increase, spending restraint.
I just finished a research project on the polarization fo american politics and hwo the internet will affect this government and am very excited at the steps this group has taken.
I would like to point out what seems to have been said here before, we can't just have a republican and a democrat, we need candidates who understand the needs of the center!
The things which are of most concern are not those points of vociferous disagreement but those of tacit and undemocratic consent.
Think of Iraq. Think of torture. Think of domestic spying.
What makes America great is that America is good. When she is no longer good she will no longer be great.
Is it too late?
Candidates willing to adress these issues rather than simply accept the tacit status quo are essential.
Let us support those who say "Get out of Iraq now" and "Stop torture now" and "Stop spying on us now."
These are not the perogatives of the Commander in Chief to be dismissed with the wave of a pen over a discrace of a "signing statement."
These are our Human and Civil Rights.
Candidate willing to energetically and unambiguously defend them deserve our support.
I'm a recent college graduate and I have over 50,000 in debt to repay simply because the cost of education kept rising all the while I was in school. I don't regret the college I went, but upon leaving college and heading onto graduate school, I'm finding few ways to keep the costs at bay. I've served in the line for several campaigns and tried to energize local politics. We drove home the importance of voting at my college during the 2024 election, and although we had record turnout, I still felt as though the candidates refused to address one of the most important issues in this nation: the rising cost of education. I find it absurd and embarrassing when we look around the world and see our nation as the last superpower and barely willing to understand that to keep such a status, it must have a competitively educated populace. The worst thing about this issue is the unresponsiveness of young people. If we can energize the base of the youth vote, it might be possible to get candidates to appeal to our interests. As someone who's tried time and again to do this, I can understand how tall a task it represents. Still, I am frustrated by the lack of movement from this demographic and because no one else is willing to work, I suffer along with those few of my age group that care enough to cast their votes. The argument remains - if we're going to change this country, we have got to energize the popular youth base and drive home the agenda of improving the monies flowing toward public and private education. Without this movement, our nation will fail as we look around the world and find our people outstripped by better educated, highly motivated, foreign powers who possessed the will to understand their politics and took action to better their nations.
It's about time. Come on lets get excited. Its about changeing what we are about. It's about giving the process back to the people.No we all don't agree on all issues. But we do agree that the current process is bad, and the existing system can't change it. Let's take a leap of faith like our forefathers did. For the sake of our children and grandchildren. Sign me up!!
Let us all flood into Unity08 and use it to bring Chritianity back into the US Government. The Republicans have left us out in the cold and done nothing about gay marriage, banning abortions, or bringing the Ten Commandments back into the Courtroom. Now, Unity08 offers us a chance to unite and purge the government of non-believers. It only takes 35%. We can do it!
Isn't one of the major problems with our democratic process, the cost of elections? As I understand it, using conventional means, it costs millions to get elected to any significant position and this means a lot of people gave some money and a few people gave a lot of money to the candidate. They expect something in return. In addition, the candidate is only responsibl to the base that elected him, he has no obligation to the country as a nation. Sometimes, it is necessary to vote for something that favors the national interest over the narrow interest of your district.
We need to find a better way!
One of the biggest problems this country is facing is that the ethics and core values of our elected officials are out of whack! Not just the president but a large number of our elected officials think that we owe them something in some way instead of them understanding that we elected them to represent us. Ethics and core values must be a requirement.
2008 is a long way away. I wish Unity 08 Good luck. We certainly need a change and I will lend support to any viable alternative to the status quo that emerges. However, I believe to shock the United States Government back to reality we the people need to work towards an All Rookie Congress in 2024 starting in 2024.
As a Democrat,
...or "former Democrat"...I want this Party, that I have so loyally supported over the years, to explain to me, this vote in the Senate, by an overwhelming number of Democrats, to give Americas future away to citizens of foreign countries.
Can you explain the mindless logic behind this stupidity? I could expect such from the Republican Party but they amazingly, once again, have positioned the Democrats to the wrong side of this issue. The American People are "Not Happy" with what these Democrats and.George Bush are willing to do to our country in the name of Pandering!
It will be a cold day in hell before I vote for any Democrat, Republican or Independent that is willing to sell out the Middle Class of this country for Votes or Corporate favor!
Lenexa,KS
I began filling in this field by ranting...
I end as the eternal optimist.
Anything with promise is better than the choices we now have.
Voting has seemed an exercise in futility...
a task I haven't shirked since Jimmy Carter made room for Reagan.
Maybe this time I might make a difference.
Wouldn't it be nice if politicians did not accept donations and everyone received a certain amount of free tv time and debates. No billboards or other advertising. We all hate it. The politicians would have no obligations to pay back the donors.
I sure hope this works. Anything would be better than what we have. These people of power do not care what we think. Just pay the bill (taxes).
I will pass this around to my internet friends.
It is about time that we as Americans come together to take back our country. It is not about Democrat or Republican, it is about America and her people. We have been lost for some years now and the leadership needs to be returned to the people.
I am so excited about the process of Unity 08 that I am ready to help in any way possible.
I hope all who visit this site and hear about this movement jump on board and help bring understanding and intelligent debate to what is good for our country and the diverse population she contains.
Here's to the future...!
Before we have a stand on all the "issues", the Issues need to be defined. If this group is going to become a wing of either the right or the left I would just as soon not be involved. Seems to me that the purpose of Unity08 is thinking outside the box. We must first DELINEATE the REAL issues. Not jump on the partisan bandwagon-please,, no screaming!!
Why can't we insist that congressmen only accept contributions from individuals living within their district and from corporations with corporate offices located inside their districts? This would help control corruption and also insure that citizens are properly represented.
I was one of the lucky callers who got through to NPR. I am a registered Republican who remains ashamed at the incompetence of this so-called President. Follow-up Republican callers could not believe I have not respect for a man who wasn't qualified to be a mayor, let alone the leader of the planet. I was chastized for putting down my own party, although I have nothing but respect for "real Republicans". Thank God for Unity08. Now I can move neither left nor right, only pragmatically in the middle. 2024 can't get here fast enough. If we're lucky, Bush will leve us some assemblance of the America we once knew. Give me a combo ticket of Guiliani/Hillary or Guiliani/Edwards....and several years of repairing a disasterous eight years.
some of many issues...
global warming..public financing of political campaigns, free air and tv time for elected candidates...basic health care for all US citizens...energy conservation and on and on
I have been LONGING for some sort of credible third-party movement since Nov. 2, 2024. For far longer, I've dreamed that we could find some way to jettison the unworkable primary system that neither party seems capable of -- or courageous enough to walk away from.
For the record, I'm a dismayed moderate Democrat, 45 years old, who reads sensible, intelligent blogs of the left and right almost daily.
I am especially disgusted -- as a journalist myself -- with the way the MSM is already falling into the old memes as their "leading analysts" blather on about 2024 contenders from both parties.
Here's to unity08. Let's shake it all up, netroots style!
I am a 64 year old male and I have never seen in my life time a more deplorable political situation. I have voted for canadates in both parties over the years but believe fully that both parties have been taken over by the special interest groups. This is the "people's chance" to take it back. I salute this attempt.
Two come to mind:
Sen. Joseph Biden
Gen. Powell
This is the first time in a long time that I am excited about a political movement.
Let's make it happen!
What we can't do alone, we can do together.
Unless the goal of this party is to elect people with no political associations or background, it isn't going to change anything. Politicians have motives and until the motives are restricted by the American majority, the politicians will continue to represent the rich and powerful minority.
This is great! I spent last Sunday debating politics with my son. We didn't agree on a lot of issues, on the other hand we are not all that far apart. The main thing we did agree on is that our current system is broken. I was disappoited to hear him say it was impossible to fix it. I told him what we needed was a third party, a party that is for America, not a party for republicans or democrats. We don't need parties to tell us what to think, we need a party to listen to what we think! So let's make it happen. I can't wait to show him this web site. It may give him new hope.
I'm sorry, you want to do what? A "unity" ticket? You mean like one Democrat for President and a Republican for Vice President? Or vice-versa?
Yikes, a terrible image just raised what's left of the hairs on the back of my neck.
I just envisioned a Lieberman/McCain bumper sticker on a passing SUV.
Beyond that, how do you propose to scrape the likes of Mussolini's fascist corporations off the backs of people who strive to find decent work in what 'career' fields are left after everything except burger flipping has packed up for cheaper shores?
Seriously, I do wish you good luck, but I'm afraid that, after paying attention for 72 years, I've come to the sad conclusion there is no solution short of revolution. And that ain't gonna' happen until we're ALL poor and desperate.
We have seen our right to privacy taken in the name of national security. HOGWASH. Get King George and his henchmen out of Washington, and also add an ammendment to the Constitution that allows the people to recall their reps to the federal government, right now we can't do it. Get rid of the "electoral college" it's no longer needed, let every vote count. Hitler started the way this country is being run now, first they take your constitutional rights, then they make every one register firearms, then they come in and take them. Hitler all over again.
Everyone,
Unity08 is worthy of your support only to the extent that the prospective coalition would reduce the size & scope of government in areas not authorized by the US Constitution, and to require the government to be effective, efficient and non-aggressive in areas that are indeed authorized.
I do not support a general push to replace the duopoly with another organization or group that is not fundamentally different than the duopoly. Some groups push to help "independent" candidates take power away from the duopoly, but their objective has nothing whatsoever to do with the goal of reducing tyranny in the United States. I absolutely do not support this approach, nor any organization that embraces that approach.
If Unity08 does not have a clear policy to reinstate Liberty, then I'm Unity08's opponent and not an ally. If Unity08 does have a radar-lock on reinstatement of Liberty, then I'm a staunch ally.
The word "Liberty" means that the power of elected persons has limits that are written, and enforced. Only a written, enforced Constitution can impose Liberty to limit tyranny. The duopoly has attempted to redefine the word "Liberty" to mean "subject to the jurisdiction of the US Federal government".
Liberty is perverted by the Supreme Court's unbridled presumption of power to redefine the words of the US Constitution. Liberty is perverted by having enough laws, so everyone can be construed as a criminal ... and, then selectively enforcing laws. Liberty is perverted when Presidents are permitted to amend laws with "signing statements", or via unlawful Executive Orders
Respectfully,
Guy McLendon
Libertarian Party
www.mclendon.net
I just watched your two founders on the PBS Newshour and was struck by how well the "Republican" gentleman echoed what the liberal netroots blogosphere has been articulating for years: The need for energy independence, quality education, affordable health care, and concern about the rising national debt.
Additional similarities include using the internet as a tool for democratization, distain for using social wedge issues such as abortion that keep the country divided, and the consensus that establishment Democrats and Republicans are ineffective. The DLC in particular actively fights against the left wing of the party on these very important issues on a regular basis.
There is much that Unity08 has in common with what has been branded "the far left." In fact, Howard Dean's campaign slogan for the 2024 primary was "I want my country back." The exact sentiment expressed here.
The right has done such a wonderful job demonizing the word "liberal" that perhaps rebranding under another name may make it more palatable for some. Unity08 works for me but I think candidates need to shed their party affiliations entirely and run as former Republican or Democrat "Unity Candidates." But that may defeat your purpose.
The other option would be for people to just get over their irrational fear of the left. We already advocate all of these things anyway and are much further along in our netroots organizing and fundraising.
If you don't believe this can happen....check out this link at the Kansas City Star web site.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/14700196.htm
Kansas Republican Party Chairman agrees to run for Lt. Governor with a Democratic Governor.
Go Unity08!
This movement is exactly what I have long awaited in America: an agendaless political movement that will GET THINGS DONE. I turn on the news everyday, and it's a wonder that America is holding together with so many issues splintering us apart. The time for mindless bickering to end, and things to actually get done. Everyone on this site believes in what we are now undertaking, but we must pass on the message. I only heard of the Unity movement today while watching the Situation Room on CNN, and already it has riveted me. My point is, without making this too long, is that we need to get the message out, make some noise through word of mouth, email, media, ANYTHING to help prepare for the 2024 election.
We need a candidate that is ready to undo what the Bush admin. has done to our laws and the Consitution. All the signing statements Bush has added to the laws that congress has passed and and the presidential decrees that tend to gut the Consitution. These are the things I can and will support.
Does it really matter what legislation is finally passed on the "illegal immigration" issue when neither the White House nor the Congress, whether Republicans or Democrats, have any intention of appropriating a dime to actually enforce any of it? The whole key to stopping the flow of illegal immigrants is to cut off the attraction...the jobs they are coming here for. And to do that, there must be felony charges and severe penalties enforced against the CEOs and others that hire the illegals. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have any intention of interrupting the flow of campaign contributions from these corporate or other business contributors that want cheap labor. So there will be a lot of arm waving and gnashing of teeth about the "authorization" of bills but there will be unanimity about the "appropriations"...there won't be any!
1. Amend the Constitution to Guarantee Everyone a Job at a Living Wage
Corporate America is systematically destroying millions of decent paying jobs for working people. At the same time, the rich and the powerful are leading an assault on the public sector and demanding cutbacks in government jobs that provide services for us all. As a result, there are not enough good jobs to go around and our public services are crumbling. Nearly one in four workers are either unemployed, involuntarily working part-time, or are working full-time at poverty-level wages. Since World War II, the government has been committed on paper to a full employment economy. But Corporate America and its army of pliable politicians have made a mockery of that idea. In the name of creating jobs they give the rich and powerful more tax breaks, more subsidies, and less government regulation. But trickle-down economics doesn't work for us. It only works for them. The more subsidies and tax breaks for corporations the politicians give away, the more jobs that are destroyed through mergers, runaway investments, automation, and subcontracting. These give-aways and concessions must stop. First and foremost everyone, both in the private and public sectors, needs a guarantee of a right to a job at a living wage — one that pays above poverty-level wages and is indexed to inflation. And in today's world that comes to a minimum of about $10 an hour. We want this right written directly into the U.S. Constitution. The Declaration of Independence affirmed our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Preamble to the Constitution promised "to establish Justice,... promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity." But for working people all this means nothing if we don't have the right to a job.
2. Pay Laid-off Workers Two Months Severance for Every Year of Service
Every time a corporation lays off workers the value of its stock rises and its executive officers reap rich rewards. Meanwhile laid-off workers and their communities pay the price. On average, workers lose over $100,000 of their lifetime earnings when they are laid off. In addition, numerous studies show that unemployed workers and their families experience increased rates of disease and social problems like suicide and domestic violence. Communities also suffer from the declining incomes and increasing social problems caused by layoffs. This burden on our communities averages about $25,000 per laid-off worker. Nothing will change until Corporate America is forced to pay for some of the damage it causes. We therefore propose a Job Destruction Penalty Act modeled after the one proposed by the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, AFL-CIO (which covers all workers except those in hiring hall types of employment). Under the Act corporations with 100 or more employees globally will be required to pay each eligible laid-off worker two months severance pay for every year of service. And they will be required to pay $25,000 per eligible laid-off worker to the local community to offset rising social costs. This Job Destruction Penalty Act will make Corporate America think twice about layoffs.
3. Restore Workers Rights to Organize, Bargain and Strike
The right to organize unions, bargain freely and strike when necessary is being destroyed by employers and their representatives in government. Today, nearly 1 out of 10 workers involved in union organizing drives is illegally fired by employers who wage a campaign of fear, threats and slick propaganda to keep workers from exercising a genuinely free choice. That is why union membership is declining. And as union membership falls so do the wages of all working people, union and non-union alike. (The buying power of the average worker's wage has declined by 15 percent over the last 25 years.) Unity08 will support the courageous efforts of our brothers and sisters out in the streets and in the fields all over this nation to overcome these legal handicaps, especially in the South and Southwest where the laws are most hostile. We also must dedicate ourselves to fighting for a complete overhaul of this country's labor laws. All scabbing must be banned and no workers should be fired without just cause. We must win repeal of the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Amendments, which sharply tilted the labor law in favor of employers. We want card-check recognition of union bargaining status, as in Canada. New union members must have the right to submit a first contract to binding arbitration at the request of the union. All employees of federal, state and local governments must have full collective bargaining rights; they must enjoy full participation in the political process (i.e. partial repeal of the Hatch Act); and the FLRA and all applicable state laws must be amended accordingly. Agricultural and other excluded workers must be covered by federal labor laws, except where existing state laws offer more protection. We oppose all attempts to legalize company unions and to repeal or weaken the Davis-Bacon Act or Section 13c of the Federal Urban Mass Transit Act of 1964. Railway unions must be able to exercise their rights to bargain and to strike without government interference. The right of other unions must be similarly protected. We demand a law requiring employers who purchase or merge with other companies to honor all existing collective bargaining agreements and contracts. While we support rehabilitation and the learning of skills, we oppose all use of prison labor for the production of goods and services.
4. End Bigotry: An Injury to One Is an Injury to All
For generations, bosses have profited by dividing working people on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, and political beliefs. Rather than creating enough jobs, they force us to fight among ourselves for the few good ones that remain. Rather than creating enough opportunities for higher education, they force us and our children to quarrel over the available spots. We can curb corporate power only if we unite around a commission of economic justice and fairness. Real democracy includes all of us. We work in all kinds of occupations, and come from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. We are women as well as men. Every time an employer pays a woman less for the same or comparable work, we are all paid less. Every time a minority worker is denied a decent job or promotion, we are all denied promotion. When immigrants are scapegoated and denied full labor rights and civil rights, we are all scapegoated and denied our rights. We favor full rights for all, and we will tolerate no discrimination or other form of injustice based on race, religion, gender, ethnicity, disability, national origin, age, creed, sexual orientation, language, or political beliefs. We favor amending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect all these categories from discrimination. We oppose all forms of terrorism and hate crimes, including attacks against African American churches, synagogues, or other places of worship. We also oppose police brutality and other forms of the criminalization of dissent and poverty. We support affirmative action and anti-discrimination programs to take away the bosses' power to divide and conquer. We support an immigration policy that does not discriminate on any basis; and a trade policy that supports international fair labor standards and works to alleviate the conditions that send people moving around the globe in search of opportunity. We also support comparable worth initiatives and strong sanctions against sexual harassment to make the workplace safe and fair for women workers. Unity08 stands against current efforts to dismantle these programs. From the shop floor to the executive suite, we believe the workforce should reflect the wonderfully diverse face of our nation. We stand for justice and the end to discrimination.
5. Guarantee Universal Access to Quality Health Care
Health care is the most profitable industry in the nation and it is the most shameless example of unbridled corporate greed in the U.S. In the guise of cost-containment, it redistributes resources from sick people and their caregivers to wealthy businessmen and shareholders. Forty-two million Americans have no health insurance. Eighty percent of the uninsured are working people and their dependents. And tying health care coverage to the job encourages companies to use part-time and temporary workers to evade providing benefits. We spend more on health care than any other nation in the world. But a poorly regulated, corporate-dominated health care system eliminates choice, erodes care, and inflates administrative costs while boosting profits and CEO compensation. Health care is a critical social good that demands collective interests prevail over private gain. We call for: Universal entitlement for all residents to comprehensive health care benefits including preventive, curative, rehabilitative and long-term care. There must be freedom to choose one's own doctors and health professionals, and full information provided to enable all to make informed choices on their medical treatment. Single-payer health insurance, publicly administered and funded, delivered by a non-profit system. Full funding of public health programs performed by the public sector to provide services to vulnerable populations, monitor population disease trends, and to prevent and treat communicable diseases. Funding for research that serves the public good, not private gain. Academic health centers must have support for their research mission. Unimpeded access to a full range of family planning and reproductive services for men and women, including the right to continue or terminate a pregnancy. We oppose any forms of coerced sterilization. Strong representation and a decision-making role for health care recipients and health care workers in public planning and oversight bodies.
6. More Time for Family and Community
A 32-Hour, 4-day Work Week
Double-time Minimum for All Overtime
An Hour Off with Pay for Every two Hours of Overtime
20 Mandatory Paid Vacation Days for All
One Year Paid Leave for Every Seven Years of Work
Each year we become more and more productive at work. In a fair and just economy, increased productivity should allow us to work fewer hours, not more. Yet compared to the late 1960s, we are now working an average of more than one extra month annually. We work longer hours and have less vacation time than almost all workers in the industrialized world. While many of us cannot find work, factory overtime is now at record levels because it is more profitable to pay overtime than it is to hire new workers. Enough is enough. We call for amending the federal labor laws to: Define the normal work week to 32 hours without loss of pay or benefits Provide a minimum of double-time pay for all hours worked over 32 hours a week and 8 hours a day Forbid compulsory overtime Mandate one hour off with pay for every two hours of overtime Require twenty days paid vacation for all workers in addition to the federal holidays Provide one year of paid educational leave for every seven years worked. Taken together these proposals will create millions of new jobs and allow us free time we need to care for our families and to participate in our communities. More family time and more community participation should be the fruit of increased labor productivity.
7. Protect Our Families
Paid Family Leave
Flexible Working Schedules
Affordable Child and Elder Care for All
Mandatory Minimum Pensions for All
Guaranteed Adequate Annual Income for All
While politicians babble about family values, Unity08 intends to do something real to protect our families. We call for a basic benefit package that covers all working people — full-time and part-time workers, employed and unemployed. This package would include: Twelve weeks paid family leave for each newborn or adopted child, and for taking care of ill family members. A guarantee of flexible working schedules so that we can arrange our own time to deal with personal and family concerns. Mandatory minimum pensions for all workers, fully vested and portable, that do not reduce social security benefits. Subsidized, high quality child care and elder care for all who need it. A guaranteed adequate annual income for all, with a yearly cost of living allowance increase, which will bring both families and individuals up and out of poverty. Such benefits already exist in most European countries. But they are under attack by corporations that want benefits pushed down to the lower levels that exist in the U.S. We must end this race to the bottom by bringing our benefits up to more just and humane standards. This is our program to protect family values.
8. Ensure Everyone Access to Quality Public Education
We are a nation of educational haves and have nots. The rich protect their children in elite private schools while our children suffer in increasingly crowded, dangerous, and under-funded public schools. The rich send their children to the best colleges and universities, while more and more of our children are denied higher education due to rising tuition costs and deep cutbacks in our state universities. This two-tiered educational system must end. We call for a renewed commitment to high quality public education for all, not voucher systems and other privatization schemes that further reduce resources for our public schools. We call for: National financing of all public education (instead of property taxes) so that each child, not just those of the rich, has the resources necessary for a good learning environment. National legislation and funds to reduce the student-teacher ratio to 15 to 1 in all public schools. National legislation and funding to extend public schools for pre-K children starting at age 3 on a voluntary basis. Parent education at public schools to help parents from all backgrounds learn more about how to help their children learn at home. Free public university and technical education of all kinds for everyone who wants it. Each of us should be able to go to school as far as our abilities can carry us. Like the GI Bill of Rights, everyone 18 years or over should receive a minimum livable wage for four years when attending a post-secondary educational institution.
9. Stop Corporate Abuse of Trade
Multinational corporations and most of their hired politicians claim that free trade is good for us. But the corporate version of free trade is really about seeking the cheapest sources of labor and escaping labor and environmental standards wherever they interfere with profits. We favor free and open trade, but only if the rights of all workers, both here and abroad, are strongly protected. Then trade will not only be free, it will also be fair. Trade is not free or fair if it pits us against workers who get paid pennies a day, work in horrid conditions, and enjoy no legal rights. Trade is not free or fair if it makes it easier for corporations to pollute their workers and the environment. We oppose NAFTA and GATT in their current forms. We also reject narrowly nationalistic solutions to trade imbalances that scapegoat our fellow workers in other countries. We believe in trading freely with all trading partners who adhere to basic minimum labor and environmental standards. We call for establishing the strongest international labor and environmental standards that improve conditions for low-wage workers, not ratchet ours down. We call for worker inspection teams to police these standards. Such teams of worker representatives from different nations should regularly visit export-oriented facilities around the world to determine whether minimum standards are being met. Only products meeting such standards would receive a "fair trade" seal of approval and be eligible for free and open trade. And we insist that workers themselves be able to enforce these sanctions, relying on traditional rights to refuse to handle "unfair" products.
Unity08 will actively promote a strategy of international solidarity and cooperation with labor movements and labor parties in other nations through the exchange of information, worker organizing, collective bargaining, and other actions and strategies that demonstrate our commitment to work together to confront the global attacks on our environment and living and working conditions. We oppose all policies instituted by corporate-dominated lending institutions like the World Bank that force developing nations to lower the wages of their workers. We will especially strive to bring pressure to bear on those U.S.-based transnational corporations that are violating labor rights in other nations of the world, and to fight against any U.S.-based policies that would undermine the rights of workers in other nations to organize. Finally, we demand that our government stop doing the bidding of global corporations and stop using military and foreign policy to prop up anti-labor regimes that violate human rights.
10 End Corporate Welfare as We Know It
Corporate Welfare is a disgrace. Today much of Corporate America is living on welfare in the form of tax breaks and direct government subsidies. To divert us from this estimated two hundred billion dollar a year corporate welfare ripoff, media pundits and corporate politicians aim their fire at the poor on low-income welfare (which amounts to less than one third of what corporations take from the treasury.) State governments dole out billions in "incentives" to lure business from other states or to keep the business that is already there from going elsewhere. The federal government doles out billions more in subsidies and tax breaks to corporate special interests. Meanwhile the corporations return the favor by pouring millions into the campaign coffers of both parties. Unity08 opposes all forms of welfare for corporations and the rich. We support a total end to corporate tax breaks and subsidies. We call for an end to the war between the states. To stop the tax concession competition among states and communities, all corporations should pay a standard community investment tax wherever they go. We support strong national standards for labor rights and the environment so that corporations can no longer force states and cities into a brutal competition for jobs at any cost. That's what we call welfare reform.
11 Make the Wealthy Pay their Fair Share of Taxes
Over the past twenty-five years, while we have suffered a decline in our standard of living, a staggering amount of wealth has been pumped up into the hands of a tiny elite. Never before has so much money been diverted into the hands of so few. From 1983 to 1989 alone the top one percent of all families increased their wealth by over $1.45 trillion. During the same period the national debt increased by $1.49 trillion. We need a just and simplified tax system to reclaim what is rightfully ours. We need to make the rich pay their fair share. And to ensure that they do, we propose the following kind of wealth taxes:
Higher income tax rates for the rich and the elimination of all tax loopholes used by the rich
Reductions in sales and personal property taxes that hit working people the hardest
A wealth tax on those with over $2 million in net worth (total assets minus total debt)
A tax on all mergers and acquisitions of over $1 billion, which would slow down the corporate destruction of jobs through giant mergers
A tax on all stock options valued over $1 million to discourage inflated CEO compensation
A tax on all electronic transfers of funds over $5,000 to and from the US
A tax on savings and loan institutions to pay back the $500 billion S&L bailout
A tax on non-profit institutions and foundations with $100 million or more in assets
A 100 percent tax on that portion of executive salaries exceeding twenty times the average worker's pay in that corporation.
Such taxes would not only make our tax system fair and just, but it would also provide this country with the needed funds to provide decent jobs and benefits for all.
12. Revitalize the Public Sector
The public sector has gotten a bad name because much of what passes for government today is a way to enrich the wealthy at our expense. Through government, Corporate America receives its long list of welfare in tax breaks, subsidies and cost-plus contracts. Even worse, as sales taxes, payroll taxes, and property taxes on working people have been unfairly increased, many important public services have been sharply reduced. Corporate-backed politicians are using the anti-government sentiment they have so carefully engineered to kill vital programs that many employers have always despised. If corporations continue to get their way, OSHA will be gutted, our environmental and labor laws will be worthless, our public health system will be dismantled, and the safety net and public universities will be only a dim memory. It's time for working people to put an end to this nonsense.
Unity08 stands firmly opposed to the privatization and contracting out of public services presently performed. A government that works for us would provide critical goods and services that can not, and should not, be run for profit. Our kind of government would: regulate and limit the destructive effects of corporate greed implement our program to guarantee everyone a decent job ensure quality health care for all rebuild our infrastructure and expand mass transportation continue to provide high quality postal service clean up and protect our environment help enforce workplace regulations provide quality education, housing, and child care for all protect our social security ensure adequate national defense. We can fund all of these programs with a more equitable tax system that sharply increases taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Additional funds can be gained by eliminating unnecessary and wasteful military spending. Let's get government to work for us, not for the corporations.
13. End Corporate Domination of Elections
The current system of privately financed elections essentially takes away our right to vote. Today Corporate America and the rich use their vast wealth to dominate the election process. As a result, politicians put the vested interests of the rich and powerful ahead of the needs and concerns of their constituents and the nation as a whole. It is virtually impossible to pass legislation that protects and empowers working people. Instead we are forced to watch elected politicians of both parties routinely rob the public treasury of billions of dollars, giving their rich and powerful donors tax breaks, subsidies, bail-outs, and regulatory exemptions. We demand an end to this robbery. We demand a level playing field. We support all efforts to enhance working people's political power and we oppose all efforts to dismantle majority black or brown electoral districts. In addition, we support statehood for the District of Columbia. We also want: A financial cap on what any candidate can spend on elections. Full public financing of state and national elections based on the principle of "one person, one vote" and "government of, by, and for the people." Full and equal public financing and media time for candidates who have proven popular support, rather than just access to big contributors. Such funds should be made available only to those candidates who pledge not to raise and spend any private money whatsoever during the primary and general election periods. Enacting such a system would encourage Americans from all walks of life, regardless of their economic means, to seek public office and save taxpayers billions of dollars of corporate welfare heaped on the rich and powerful. Such a system would allow all of us a fair and equal voice in deciding who should represent us and what legislation should be passed. Such a system — and Unity08 — would make democracy a reality.
14. Build A Just Transition Movement to Protect Jobs and the Environment
Unity08 affirms its commitment to a clean and safe environment. We all need clean workplaces, clean air, and clean water. But we also need our jobs. We reject the false choice of jobs or the environment. We will not be held hostage by corporate polluters who poison our workplaces and our communities. We refuse this corporate blackmail. Corporations are not interested in either saving our jobs or protecting the environment. But we also know that environmental change is coming. What we produce and how we produce will change as steps are taken to protect people and the natural environment from harm. Unity08 will support taking such steps if and only if the livelihoods of working people endangered by environmental change are fully protected. Therefore, Unity08 calls for the creation of a new worker-oriented environmental movement — a Just Transition Movement — that puts forth a fair and just transition program to protect both jobs and the environment. All workers with jobs endangered by steps taken to protect the environment are to be made whole and to receive full income and benefits as they make the difficult transition to alternative work. The cost of this Just Transition Income Support program will be paid for by taxes on corporate polluters.
15. Enforce Safety & Health Regulation with Worker Inspectors
The regulation of occupational safety and health hazards is shamefully inadequate, and the enforcement of the standards we have is woefully neglected. There are too few safety inspectors to visit all the workplaces that need to be visited. Thousands of untested new chemicals are introduced into use each year, exposing millions of workers and the public to unknown hazards. Incidents take place without adequate investigations being conducted; and, when incidents are investigated by impartial investigators, their findings are rarely implemented. Unity08 must address this important area. In addition to increasing the number of OSHA inspectors, we need the right to act and to enforce any and all safety and health regulations. We call for national legislation to train and deputize workers to be on the job inspectors in each and every workplace. Such inspectors should be protected against corporate harassment and discrimination and should be able to do their job without fear of reprisal. Such inspectors should have the power to shut down hazardous operations and to enforce the right of every worker to refuse unsafe work. Such inspectors should have the power to investigate incidents to uncover their root causes and to force the implementation of their findings. Because we know our work sites, worker-inspectors would be better able to protect the workforce from exposure and the community from disaster. Worker-inspectors will save lives. In addition, we need the following national laws: All chemicals must be tested for their impacts on human health and the environment before they are introduced into our workplaces. Working people through their unions should receive advance notice before new chemicals are introduced into the workplace and should have the power to block their introduction for safety reasons.
16. Reclaiming the Workplace: Job Design, Technology and Skill
Labor has little or no voice in the design or implementation of new technologies. Instead, giant corporations use technological research, design, and workplace implementation to maximize their profits at our expense. Corporations control the design and use of computers and information technologies, as well as other kinds of mechanization and automation. They also control the design of work itself, imposing new administrative and computerized control technologies under such names as "workplace re-engineering." Like previous corporate methods, workplace re-engineering is based on speed up and de-skilling. However it poses another danger to our jobs as well. The corporate control of workplace design destroys jobs. Corporations implement technologies and designs that make it profitable to replace full-time workers with an army of temporaries. To fight back we call for the creation of a labor-based, publicly-funded Technology Democratization Commission, which will work to ensure that labor plays an important role shaping the development and implementation of technology.
The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799. John C. Fitzpatrick, Editor.--vol. 30
Mount Vernon, April 1, 1789.
... my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an Ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm. I am sensible, that I am embarking the voice of my Countrymen and a good name of my own, on this voyage, but what returns will be made for them, Heaven alone can foretell. Integrity and firmness is all I can promise; these, be the voyage long or short, never shall forsake me although I may be deserted by all men. For of the consolations which are to be derived from these (under any circumstances) the world cannot deprive me.
I consider myself a fiscal conservative (i.e. what you spend must equal what you have--no deficits) and a social liberal. Incredibly, I now find myself not caring so much about ideology as I do about just plain COMPETENCE in our government. Government, at all levels, is just plain inept at dealing with anything be it foreign or domestic policy. It's time we voted for competence over ideology. And the place you find competence is in the middle. Take a look at the non-politician Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City. He is giving New Yorkers perhaps the most competent government they have ever seen and New York is running a fiscal SURPLUS. Michael Bloomberg for President. It's time to get competent people back in charge.
Regarding Seneca's post... it is unfortunate that otherwise rational people have resorted to cynicism and generalizations. There's a line between the attitude of "We won't be fooled again!" and the attitude of "We won't believe in anything ever again!" and I suppose we are all in danger of crossing it.
Unity08 has the power to take back Washington and empower citizens again. These are serious times, and they call for serious leaders and action. I set forth herein 10 key steps which must be undertaken by our leaders, and ourselves, to address the major challenges ahead.
America is currently in a downward spiral. Budget deficits add to a national debt (including unfunded entitlements) which will burden our children and grandchildren. We export our wealth through record trade deficits to other countries. Our dependence on foreign oil has led to vast missteps in our foreign policy and, perhaps, to a war premised upon poor intelligence. The dual challenges of global terrorism and lack of moral U.S. leadership in the world threaten our security and that of mankind. Our health care system is a patchwork of "fixes." Our education system lacks vision and leadership and local, community involvement.
Washington is increasingly about money and power and adherence to "the party line." When I vote for a U.S. Congressman or Congresswoman, or U.S. Senator, or the President, I expect them to use their God-given abilities and work hard to reach good decisions. So why are so many votes strictly along party lines? I've often written to my representatives in Congress, only to receive a canned "party-line" answer. Moreover, no one wants to speak the truth - it may prevent them from being re-elected.
The truths are many. Be forewarned, however, for you may not want to hear them.
First, Americans must be braver now than at any time since the Great Depression. Individual Americans must have the courage enough to both request and then endure the self-sacrifices that will be called for. Our citizens must possess the perserverance to speak out on issues which beg national debate. We must possess the resolve to demand well-thought out action, even when powerful forces oppose action.
Second, personal lifestyles will have to change. To fix Social Security and Medicare and huge federal deficits, both increases in taxation and spending reductions must take place. We must raise the age for receipt of Social Security retirement benefits. There will be much pain involved, and no one will like to be personally put at a disadvantage and "lose" promised benefits. We must all be willing to share in the pain of greater taxes and reduced benefit levels or benefit age or other thresholds. In addition, at the same time the national personal savings rate must dramatically increase. Our nation has been a consumer of wealth, both as a government and as individuals, and we must instead become a nation of savers and debt-reducers.
Third, we must recognize that governments cannot do it all. Government is inherently not good at certain things. Our society may be framed by government, but our society works due to the individual contributions of each person to the common good of all. Charitable causes and social involvment must be supported much more greatly. We must turn to our available resources - including retirees, college and high school students on summer vacation or spring sreak, and many others (including each of us, individually) - to provide the support of social institutions other than government.
Fourth, we must recognize that the federal government is too far removed to do exceptional work in certain areas. For example, there are reasons we possess local school boards. Too many dollars are spent adopting and monitoring federal programs in education, rather than providing true support to (but not control) over local schools.
Fifth, we are the world's only remaining superpower in a world still full of poverty, disease, oppression, war, and hatred. If we desire the world to move forward, in a way that hastens our own security, we must not only be tough on those who attack us, but we must remove from them the fuel of millions of their potential supporters. America should export not mainly bombs, but rather volunteers and economic development. We must work to restore our moral leadership in the world, and work hard so that the word of our country is once again respected and the promise of our freedoms are once again desired. This must be done not only by our government but also by our individual citizens and charitable organizations.
Sixth, we must achieve integration of our social institutions. Each and every Church leader should reach out to a denomination of a different color, or faith, to encourage joint worship and joint community projects. We cannot force integration, but we must encourage it.
Seventh, we must remove the influence of corporations and other non-individuals on our political processes, as well as the influence of the wealthy and special interest groups. This must be done by limiting campaign contributions to politicians and political action groups. This will likely require a Constitutional amendment to achieve.
Eighth, we must express our willingness on the world stage to require other countries to play by the rules - to adopt and enforce meaningful laws to protect copyrights and patents, to enforce wage laws and working conditions law, to require adherence by product producers to environmental standards, and to eschew bribery and intimidation as legitimate business devices. Can our government do this? To a limited extent. The power of our nation of consumers can do a better job, by requiring those who import from overseas to require adherence to these standards. Trade laws cannot exist in a vacuum in which one country is given an advantage due to abuse of its labor force, harm to its environment, or failure to protect property rights.
Ninth, we must expand Medicare, slowly and deliberately, and work to improve it at the same time. we must work to find other solutions to the need to provide health care for all Americans. We must do this in a manner that encourages our best and brightest to continue to be attracted to the medical profession.
Tenth, we must reform securities laws. Improved disclosure is permitted, but we must recognize that the vast majority of individual investors fall prey to the unscrupulous and the greedy. The complexity of many investment products, and powerful forces opposing disintermediation, have worked against improving the investment experience for most individual Americans. We must encourage the profession of the fiduciary investment advisor, committed to the individual investor's best interests, highly trained, and free of the multitude of conflicts of interests which so pervade our securities industry today.
These and other challenges await us. Unity08 will succeed if Americans demand the truth, about where we as a country stand and where we are headed. Unity08 will succeed if its chosen leaders and candidates are willing to speak the truth, regardless of political consequences. Unity08 will succeed if we have the courage to face these truths and transform them into political will and well-thought out actions.
Ron A. Rhoades, BS, JD, CFP, Hernando, Florida
I believe that every item displayed for voting on the Unity08 poll is important. But I also want to suggest that, if we "reverse engineer" the poll results, we may find that not solving the Iraq situation first will make dealing with other issues of blood, health, and treasure very difficult.
Unity 08 is a great idea in that it will show that there are many people in our country who are not idealogues, following one party blindly and demonizing anyone who disagrees with them. All too often, we hear only the extreme political views, and this site/campaign can offer the rest of us a place to both voice our views and decide on issues that are important to the country as a whole as opposed to a party.
Some people have written on this site of a unity ticket. While an interesting idea, at the national level, at least, it is extremely impractical and unlikely. Other comments listed here are about support for a third party. A third party only works when you have a constitution that requires coalition governments. With our current constitution, all a third party does is siphon votes away from one of the other two parties. The Republicans experienced this with Perot, the Democrats with Nader. Third parties are great for voicing alternative opinions, but we saw in the last election that they are virtually speaking in the wilderness. Nader was shut out of the debate, so he had no impact on the issues being discussed in the last campaign.
For 15 years I have said to anyone who would listen that the only way to really fix our democracy is to take money out of it. Some people here have mentioned only allowing private donnations, but that, like the recent reform by MCain/Feingold will simply plug a few holes that will eventually open somewhere else. The only way to really take money out of the equation is to publicly finance elections, and this should be one of Unity 08's primary items on the agenda. The airwaves are supposed to be publicly owned--during election times, require that a certain amount of time be devoted to political ads on our public airwaves. A certain percentage of taxes (national and state, depending on the election) should be devoted to the financing of campaigns, and the funds should be distributed to anyone who meets whatever criteria that are put in place, regardless of party affiliation. These kinds of things are already being done at the state and local level in some places (I think Oregon is one place) and meeting with some success.
I hope that something positive can come of this campaign. I agree with the writer who said it will take a revolution to change things. Like any revolution, we need good ideas and the devotion of the people trying to make a change. I hope we can do it.
I think the unity idea is a good one. I am curious however why Unity08 doesn't address the critical problem in the polarization of U.S. politics and that is the Electoral College? How can any third party hope to gain national recognition as long as the Electoral College is in place? If you truly want democratic elections then the popular vote should elect a president that represents the values and issues of the populace not designated electors. This would be the first step in solving partisan politics in the U.S. in my opinion. The second would be to have allotted taxpayer funds for presidential elections and do away with the "paid for winner take all" candidate of the last 5 decades. We could even consider "preferential elections" instead of "winner take all elections."
Of course, none of this will matter if we do not have viable election vote result verfication. The new voting machines are part of the problem not the solution. I hope this site goes somewhere. I will keep checking back. Thank you.