Which issue do you want to debate first at Unity08.com?
Global terrorism
7%
National debt
18%
Dependence on foreign oil
25%
Public education
7%
Health care
13%
Situation in Iraq
13%
Other (post comment)
16%
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I've been disgusted by the lack of accountability and oversight by both parties related to:
Prosecution of the War in Iraq
Outlandish Spending
Anti-consumer Legislation (bankruptcy bill, prescription drug)
Outsourcing
Trade Imbalance
Quid Pro Quo votes for campaign donations
Health Insurance Rates
Corporate Welfare and tax breaks
We have a few decent people in Congress, but not enough. We need to support honest, ethical candidates running against entrenched crooks and charlatans.
We need outside the beltway candidates in 08. I would nominate Lou Dobbs, General Honore', General Anthony Zinni and former Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin. It is a pity more Americans did not vote for Ralph Nader...we had an honest candidate.
Gay marriage.
I believe the most critical issue facing America today is the one which seems the least discussed- reforming our election system. We should enact a comprehensive package of reforms to: eliminate the Electoral College, prohibit gerrymandering and institute proportional representation for congressional and legislative elections.
If these reforms were put into place, we would open the door to issue-based campaigns rather than candidate-based campaigns. There would be serious policy debates on such critical issues as the looming energy crisis, global terrorism, urban decay and other pressing matters.
This over-arching issue affects ever aspect of our lives. It is the most important for us and our future. We must address it or prepare ourselves for massive changes to come.
The middle of the political spectrum--especially the non-partisan middle--is excluded from the political process by our winner-take-all election rules. It's common knowledge that plurality voting in single-member districts excludes those to the left of the Democrats and to the right of the Republicans. The resulting two party duopoly, which can withstand almost any challenge from any point on the spectrum, also effectively disenfranchises the non-partisan middle.
The solution is proprotional voting for legislative bodies and instant runoff voting for executive offices.
1. Mutlinational corporate dominanace.
2. A sense of unbriddled nationalism.
3. Religous zealotry.
4. Iraq.
Is it possible to have someone who really knows what we want as middle class Americans? Republicans are moetly rich trying to get richer, Democrats are people with big hearts, little walets and want us to pay the bill for it, supporting the lower class American without any penalty for misuse of welfare. That middle ground that we need and want must cover theese issues as well.
The issue needs to be brought to the forefront. The Democrats are affraid to touch it, and we know where the GOP stands.
I don't think there is any question that both parties are more concerned with maintaining power than with doing what is right for the majority of the country. I sincerely hope your efforts will result in candidates and platforms that are designed to address substantive issues with some common sense.
The current administration's gathering up of power to the presidency, at the expense of legislative and judicial powers, is undermining our constitutional balance of power. A unity ticket might not be as likely as another Republican or even Democratic administration, to hold on to that imbalance. Could there be "Unity" ticket legislators, or those endorsed by the Unity ticket? Imagine a majority of legislators who paid attention to public concerns and issues instead of to their big contributors wishes? More states with "clean campaign" laws? Thanks for the inspiration.
I put education at the top of the list for one simple reason. We've spent too many years being too short-sighted. We're an ADHD culture that MUST look long-term if we're going to thrive.
Education is the foundation upon which solutions to ALL problems are built. Ed solves health care problems. It solves foreign relations problems. It solves crime and social welfare problems. In short, if you make a nation smarter, you can count on a lot of problems solving themselves.
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.
So great to see so many students on your board. Hope they will do more than just mind the web site and other techie chores.
Why are we selling ourselves out in the name of globalization? 70-80 billion a month? You do the math. Any calculation says this boat wont float with that kind of hole. Pull out of WTO
Thomas Jefferson envisioned that America would have a revolution every so often, maybe every 25 or 50 years. He was wise enough to realize that the status quo has a way of becoming the status no-go. It's time for a revolution, but not one of war, with guns and fighting. I'm tired of hearing how the candidates are going to "fight" for me. I'd rather have someone "working" for me. Working means using your head and your expertise and experience as well as your strength. We need the most capable leaders, not the most capable campaigners and fundraisers and political tricksters.
The cost of health care has soared to an outrageous portion of our GNP. The current rate of acceleration in health care cost is not maintainable. Many people cannot afford basic health insurance. While the cost of insurance continues to rise, the actual health care providers are being paid a smaller and smaller percentage of the health care dollar. Insurance companies are often making reimbursement to patients and providers cumbersome and difficult. They claim they need to cut costs, however the executives of these companies are making millions of dollars in salary and bonuses. This money needs to be redirected to patients who need medical attention and cannot get it.
We need a government that projects the views and needs of the middle class and not just corporate interests. In my opinion, most if not all of Bush's policies appear to be for corporate interests.
Others have already commented on this website that proportional representation is the sine qua non of breaking the two-party system. All that I have to add is that this would mean throwing the most fundamental features of the first and second articles of the constitution out the window. The vast majority of Americans want more choices in politics. However, they have also been trained to think that the ideas of the framers of the constitution that limit their choices are sacred. A constitutional amendment is the only solution, and at the moment, that seems about as likely as the Pope converting to Paganism. I would love to see Unity 08 bring attention to this issue.
1) The destruction of the planet.
2) The true cost of fossil fuel dependency: security, environmental destruction, war, etc.
While I believe these two items should be handled at the local level for the most part, I think that there should be some parameters set at a national level to help children in foster care, and those in disdvantaged households.
NCLB absolutely needs to be reconsidered and either tossed or made into a policy that actually works for all children.
Election reform goes right to the heart of the problem.
None of the vitally important issues you have listed can really be discussed seriously until we have complete election reform. Even if a new party takes off (and I sincerely hope that it happens) our voting system is so corrupt that how can we be sure that a new party would have a chance? Elections must be publically financed or the lobbists will eventually corrupt any/all new candidates no matter how honest and sincere that may start out to be. Election Reform first, then just start at the top of the list and work down.
I am so sick of politicans and talking heads shooting down any attempted discussion of nationalized health care with the "socialism" or "big government" labels. The cost bogeyman, IMO, is offset by the savings companies would have. Look at the huge percentage of capital that GM, for instance, has to use to fund HC and pensions. How many jobs nationwide would be saved/added; how much more investment could there be in R&D if everyone had healthcare. This country was willing to commit trillions to defense during the cold war. The defense industry hijacked the "peace dividend" 15 years ago. We should reallocate that money for healthcare. As far as all those defense workers: Re-trrain them as nurses, medical techies, and care givers. It's always OK to tell displaced textile workers, steelmakers, and autoworkers to move on into the new economy. Time to give the same message to those who've lived off the welfare of the military-industrial complex.
Illegal immigration and border security is one of the most pressing issues facing our country. We can never feel safe from terrorism if we don't have some degree of control over who is coming into the country, and why... and if the government doesn't keep tabs on them until they have gone back home.
We won't have election reform until we get real campaign finance reform first, won't we?
A breath of fresh air! Light at the end of the tunnel. Unity08 is the most exciting information I have learned in years. At last some honest insight into what really bothers most people. I can't wait to see your organization develop into all that you are hoping it will be, and more. Finally, a halt to Party Bashing, and honest-to-goodness discussion on problems and honest-to-goodness discussion on solutions. What a novel idea!
The current political system is broken. Unity08 may sound great, grass roots and all, but it cannot succeed within the current political system.
It's a 2 party system and will remain so until there is reform. There will NOT be any reform as long as either existing party is in power.
I fear it would take extreme measures of revolt by the public to change the system... The way we do that is to not pay taxes until there is reform, a tax revolt is required.
1) The Electoral College needs to be abolished. A direct popular vote for all public offices needs to be instated.
2) There should be no such thing as a lobbyist. If politicians can't function in their jobs without them as they claim, they don't deserve to hold office. The US citizens can tell congress directly what we want; we don't need lying cheating lobbyists to tell the congress what we "really" need. Lobbyists are an insult to every American citizen who votes. They are scum.
3) Globalization must occur, sorry. I don't like it anymore than the rest of you, but it is the way of the future. This country is on top, and can only go down while countries like China rise. This is inevitable in this day and age, we just have to find a way to minimize the damage to the middle class, and that is something this current administration is not doing.
4) War on terror MUST continue. We cannot back down in this war, and we need to fight wherever we need to fight to win. Whether it is in Iraq or Iran, or even in the USA. We HAVE to fight.
If we all stopped paying taxes, we would most certainly get the governments attention... They won't listen to us until measures such as these are taken by all US citizens...
The people that can afford health care get it by spending very little because their employers provide it, or they are over 65 and get medicare. Those who are unemployed and can't afford health insurance must pay exorbitant amounts for needed operations. For example, angioplasty costs over $57,000 to the uninsured, yet an insurance provider covers the same operation for an insured person and pays under $37,000.
This just doesn't seem right! There should be one amount, no matter who pays. The provider negotiated price should be eliminated, and everyone should be charged the same.
Also, someone who has lost his/her job must pay some riduculous amount for health insurance after Cobra has been exhausted. The insurance companies figure out some way to deny a medically underwritten policy to such persons.
Corporate America manages to remove long-term employees who have served tirelessly in order to have their jobs handled by lower-payed younger employees, and then these older people have to pay an exorbitant amount for health insurance when they are in their high-earning years but don't have jobs. It is no wonder that so many older people end up poor. Paying more than around $2000 a month for health insurance for early-retired married couples is insane.
Why aren't insurance companies required to form groups for such people?
Some would say that these people can get insurance through a HIPPA policy, but those people have never priced such an insurance vehicle.
It's time for the U.S. Government to come clean and tell the American people the full truth about the existence of UFOs and Extraterrestrials.
Living in Mexico, I have seen what proportional representation can be and do; and I don't recommend it. If we are to copy something from abroad, let's copy something that does work: Mexico uses paper ballots, hand counted, and the results are known within hours, and the election commission has a sampling procedure that has proven very accurate for early returns. Something similar can be said for Europe, Japan, etc.; just because we didn't come up with it doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't use it.
As for proportional rep., it was instituted in Mexico in the 80's because PRI had such a corrupt stranglehold on elections the gov. had to do something to regain cred. abroad. In practice, half the Senate and 2/5 of the House are prop.reps. beholden to the party leaders, who dole out the seats on a patronage basis to labor leaders, outgoing legislators who cannot be reelected, or other party bigwigs. It's a drain on the public purse and a block to true governance as they are not responsible to the people. I would hold back on this concept until it's fully fleshed out to avoid these types of pitfalls.
As for the issue I would put uppermost: the erosion of individual rights and protections must be reverted.
I think the best ticket of Republican and Democrat is:
Mitt Romney, Republican for President
and Joe Lieberman, Democrat for Vice-President
I caught the guys on public television and suddenly had hope again. Now, this has happened before and I have been oh so disappointed. The current situation in Washington and around the country has made me distrustful of any politician even ones that are re-packaging the party politic in the name of change and reform. I'm sick of power grabs and smug politicos looking down their powdered noses and lying to my face. I'm not alone. That is why you at Unity08 need to play it on the up and up. I'll be watching and hoping.....
Everything disappoints me about our government from the way it elects to the way it handles foreign policy or even foreign relations. Somethings bother me most then others like Gay Marriage I really don't care and am angered that it's even up for debate. Let them get married and take the religion out of our government. I'm all for free speech and everything but our government should be NEUTRAL and without some sort of neutrality then all we'll get from our government is biased viewpoints and judgements. To have a president or Congress who can play that part would better our country forward. Another thing that angers me is how uneducated our country is in the way of politics easily swayed by petty issues, in my oppinion, like gay marriage. It angers me how uneducated the children of our nation are towards other countries pasts and politics as well as our own. We've come to a time where the young people don't believe it relavent to them until they're out of Highschool and deeply affected. Also, there's the issue of the 'Common Joe' that seems to run our politcal body. I understand that not everyone is interested in what the government does and has a very limited and uneducated view on many things, but I believe for us to further ourselves we should EDUCATE OURSELVES! Whether you're a teenager, in college, or already working you should be active and understanding about what's going on. To hear from your teachers that Bush only wants to make us independent on foreign oil so we can buy his is disturbing enough, but views from fellow teenagers are even more disturbing. The two issues I will address are using kids as an excuse to get votes and the people in Congress. On the first note, it angers everytime I see some enraged mother, or father, or politician ranting up a storm about something that effects our youth when it really doesn't and its nothing but a ploy to get syphathetic votes. Politicians shouldn't NEED to do such underhanded things like that to get the votes they DESERVE if they don't truely deserve them. The last issue are the people in Congress. Most senators I don't really know, but people like Teddy and other pigheaded senators who should really update with the times. They don't seem to be intouch with the whims of the present american. Most the issues they complain about to me don't really seem worth it to get a heart attack over. Sure, the issues they bring up ARE relavent, but the way they bring it up doesn't seem necessary. What I'm mostly trying to get at is politics nowadays is slimy and untrusting. Maybe almost to the point of unreliable but only the truth will tell.
Come on guys! This is the most serious challenge facing us as a species. If we do not deal with global warming, it could do us all in! We have less than ten years to turn this around, and current politicos have yet to seriously deal with the issue.
It just shows me how out of touch the citizens of this country really are. If we don't win the war over terrorism it will make no difference who and how our leaders are elected. We will not have a vote in how our government is run, or who runs it, we will be dead, or slaves. You can dream all you want, but that won't change radical Islamist goals of world domination. Wake up Americans, we are in a third world war!
Thank you Unity08..
The 2 party system can work better and a realistic goal is the goal right here... the focus on the practical emphasis of this group... BIPARTISANSHIP.
Moderate Dems and Republicans used to be able to form coalitions that created workable solutions. Rather than trying to radically revise the constitution, the short run goal should be to make TRUE bipartisanship (or even non-partisanship) a virtue that voters will respond to.
Come on guys! This is the most serious challenge facing us as a species. If we do not deal with global warming, it could do us all in! We have less than ten years to turn this around, and current politicos have yet to seriously deal with the issue.
The Republican Party is being split apart right now by an issue that you have not even listed. It's the 800 pound gorilla in your living room ... better to acknowledge it now because it isn't going away!
Thank you to Hamilton Jordan and Doug Bailey for getting this information out to the public. It is time for to take back our democracy and debate the issues that are truly important to our everyday lives. Best of luck!
There are multiple interlocking issues that have to be simultaneously addressed. When there is not a prioritization of concerns that focuses on what must be done at the federal level, resources are wasted. Any evaluation of priorities has to begin with a realistic assessment of available resources. Awareness of global competition needs to be a part of the agenda.
SECURE OUR BORDERS, THIS IS PUTTING SUCH A DRAIN ON ALL OF OUR RESORCES FOR EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE, LAW ENFORCEMENT, WELFAIR SYSTEM. IT COVERS ALMOST EVERYTHING THAT OUR TAXES SUPPORT. TO THE TUNE OF LITERALY BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. PLUG THE BORDERS AND HELP LOWER THE DEFICET.
What really made the twin towers fall?
Looks like a demolition to me.
Lets the 911 families have their say.
Steel frame buildings dont fall down,
or detonate at the speed of gravity.
Unity is a great idea!!!
The divide and conquer politics have
kept real Americans out of the loop.
I am outraged that our political system is failing us on this issue. Our ancestors came here legally. They wanted to become US citizens. There were no bilingual classes or free health care. The proposal by Pres, Bush is AMNESTY. Let's not mince words. Excusing illegal behavior in any shape or form is "amnesty". I want illegals held accountable for their illegal acts through deportation. I would like fences built and borders secure no matter what it takes. The corporations who hired them need to be fined or punished under the existing laws. If this is not done and more illegals are allowed into this country (under the Senate bill)then we may as well open the borders and let everyone in. Forget trying to fight terrorism and just admit that the "bad guys" won. And by the way, English should be the official langusge and stop spending taxpayers money printing all government documents in several languages. This is becoming a joke. I am beginning to think I live in a foreign country or at least a Latino one.
No Child Left Behind Act? I am dismayed that education does not rank near the top of many people's priority lists. The situation in Iraq and dependence on foreign oil are both at the top. It's time to put our feet back on American soil and tackle the domestic issues that count the most. For better or for worse, President Bush has passed sweeping educational reforms in the form of No Child Left Behind and the American Competitiveness Initiative. Our emphasis on accountability using standardized testing comes at a time when it is becoming more clear that the SAT is not error-free. In fact, it has been overscored/underscored by large margins. Education is what gets people into college and plays a huge role in determining the course of their future endeavors--I suggest we pay more attention. Furthermore, such an important but ignored issue could surely be a trump card for this organization in the 2024 elections and emphasize its bipartisan nature.
Unity 08 might possibly be the way to bring this country back from the brink.Illegal immigration,election reform,lobbying,the grievances are many.If we the people don't act now it will be too late to save America.
i agree with bob... we need the truth. :)
Immigration is THE issue - every other issue will be decided by what is decided on immigration. Despite what the president says, illegal-immigrants are taking jobs that Americans want. They are driving down wages of all Americans - stealing the American Dream and destroying our culture. It's time to stop the invasion! We need leaders who care about working Americans.
Down with the GOP. Down with the Democrats!
1. Election reform is paramount -- why go to all this trouble if we can't trust electronic machines? I'll count ballots!
2. The erosion of our civil rights in the name of national security.
It is my sincere hope that Unity08 can and will change our political landscape.
Formost on my mind is our draining of American jobs to 2nd and 3rd world countries. We are witnessing the demise of the middle class as decent jobs are shipped overseas, illegal immigration lowers wages of previously well paying domestic jobs, and corporate big wigs rake in hundreds of millions of dollars for little or nothing in performance.
Unless you live in a border state you will not know what I am talking about. I am in Law Enforcemnt and believe me, the majority of these people are not law abiding people, most of them are frequenting our jail regularly. And we are not deporting them. Why not? They stab and shoot each other on a daily basis. The public is not hearing this and I wonder why not. It is a daily occurance. Something has to be done, we are losing control of our country. I think we should do something like this, our politicians don't know who put them in office. It is quite obvious they are ignoring us. What can I do to help?