Our CEO, Robert Bingham, was interviewed earlier this week by the web site ThirdPartyWatch.com.
Another way that you, as a member of Unity08, can get involved is right here and right now. Feel free to address the concerns that are being made about the movement on ThirdPartyWatch.com.
Remember, Unity08 is not a different way to work within the current political system. Politics-as-usual is dead. Unity08 does not have a platform or a candidate yet because we don't think that is the right way to go about finding common ground and reuniting the country.
Unity08 is not being divisive. Unity08 is being inclusive. We are asking every single American, what do you think are the most crucial issues facing the country? And, as we develop that list, we wil start to figure out what questions should be asked of the candidates that are seeking out nomination.
The candidates aren't telling the members what platform the movement will pursue. The members are telling the candidates what the most important issues are to pursue. Then, together, they can start to discuss the solutions.
This is common ground.
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Thought matt's comment at the Third Watch blogs said it all:
"In an attempt to relieve my ‘ignorance’, I went to the unity08 website’s beliefs section, and am still as ignorant about their core beliefs as ever. Uniting America isn’t a belief, it’s a rhetorical technique that usually masks something sinister. Policies are important, and I refuse to buy a pig in a poke on policy. There are specific problems in this country, and they’re a lot bigger than ‘disunity’ and/or ‘partisanship’. Anyone who can’t see them or won’t campaign against them doesn’t deserve attention."
We better get cracking on the beef!! To that end check out
http://www.unity-usa.org
Help Build the Beef!
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
milligansstew.blogspot.com
Nobody is going to buy into Unity08's promise to right the wrongs of the other two political parties until they can see Unity08's solutions, its political platform.
You think you are the first to come along and ask people to follow them simply because they say they are going to do the right thing?
Now I know you guys aren't going to listen to any of this, but you guys aren't going anywhere until you change this obviously failed strategy and start working on your political agenda. If you don't, others will, it's as simple as that.
ex animo
davidfarrar
It has NOT failed. It is still a good work in progress albiet there is a ways to go to connect the present ends-means disconnects to get ready for Spring 2024 Showtime!
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
He is telling you none of your efforts at agenda-setting is going to be used. They will be creating it all, and they will do it sometime around the end of June. Everything else is nothing but a show to keep the delegates from asking real questions, like tax reform.
However, they have made a fatal flaw. They have badly underestimated the political savy of the voting public. As long as the leadership of Unity08 maintains its present position as it relates to agenda-setting, there is no way it can achieve the type of numbers they will need to be politically significant.
ex animo
davidfarrar
Still time dave! Still Time! Whining is easy. Building tougher. Things adjust and change as circumstances allow. What would Dirk Gently do??
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
Have any of you people even READ the Democratic Platform lately??? How about the Republican Platform??? I beg you try it out one night when you have a few hours to kill. But be warned, you will forget which one you are reading a hundred times before you are done. They are almost identical. Furthermore, they say nothing. Just a bunch of sound bytes surrounded by fluff. It makes no sense.
I'd rather be affiliated with this new, dynamic experiment that either of those failed ones. And they have failed. Or haven't we noticed yet that Hillary isn't any different than GW.
Look at what the media did to Al Gore in 2024. Look how they ignore the good candidates and shun them from the debate process. THIS Unity08 bunch seems like the place where those guys will end up before long. Therefore, I'm here waiting, and meeting other dynamic thinkers while I wait.
At least, until hockey season starts :)
Reminds me Mike of what Wayne Gretsky said was the reason for his success. He said he learned to skate to WHERE the hockey puck was going and not to where it has been or was now. My fear is that Unity may just be skating to where the puck has been and is now and NOT to where it is going! So as a nice pre-season warmup please help us 'Gretskyize" these Unity folks so we are successful around Stanley Cup Time!!
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
Robert - WE NEED A HIGH IMPACT OPENING STATEMENT PEOPLE WILL GRAB ONTO ..
I suggest THE FOLLOWING : "UNITY08 IS ABOUT - TRANSPARENCY, PERFORMANCE & ACCOUNTABILITY" .. Every Trail Blazer - Every Individual Including Sam and You Guys In DC : THAT SHOULD BE OUR TAG LINE - OUR OPENING REMARK ...
The follow-up should be : OUR DELEGATES & SUPPORTERS ARE BUILDING AN AGENDA BASED ON THE PEOPLES IDEAS CONCERNING THE ISSUES MOST CRUCIAL TO THE PROTECTIONS AND PRESERVATION OF THIS GREAT SOCIETY !! when the rime is right and we are ready to talk to potential Candidates - we will release the Details of OUR PEOPLES AGENDA,
Well anyway, YOU GET THE IDEA I'M SURE
Peter K (popo) Evans
.
A "Platform" says something significant, a statement about what you stand for.
A "High Impact Opening Statement" is a media sound bite, and means absolutely nothing.
The approach that makes most sense to me is for our membership to continue to build our New American Agenda platform on the wiki no matter what, and to invite all other grass-roots political movements to join us in collaboration!
Our goal, imo, is to present our Agenda as a "mirror" into which all candidates from all parties will be pressured to look and reflect on the question: What parts of our Agenda do you support, what don’t you support, and why?
ONLY the candidates who support the key strategies & tactics of our Agenda (or offer good alternatives) AND are willing to be held publicly accountable for implementing those parts of the Agenda (as Peter says: “TRANSPARENCY, PERFORMANCE & ACCOUNTABILITY”), ought to be considered worthy of our votes.
This all assumes, of course, that our "bottom-up" grass-roots approach to building the New American Agenda platform yields wise strategies & tactics that are supported by sound reasoning and valid facts. So, we must be willing and able to work collaboratively & intelligently, while sharing a centrist perspective and focusing on reforming our political system (and other societal systems) for the benefit of the American people en masse.
Even if Unity08 leadership never formally endorses the Agenda we’re building, Bob Bingham is acknowledging that U08 membership will determine the questions to ask the candidates. And since our Agenda-building process includes developing talking points and questions on every Agenda Item for candidates to answer, leadership is actually supporting our efforts! And maybe that’s the role they should be taking: Membership recruitment through publicity and presentation of our questions to the candidates. The rest is up to us here "in the trenches."
Steve Beller, PhD
Unity Agenda Building Wiki
Whining gets us nowwhere. Building does. As T Roosevelt said "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." And what we have now is with the wiki Steve cites. Build it and they will come. (But hey I'm from Iowa so what do I know?)
DC - 3rd ward - milligansstew08@yahoo.com
http://milligansstew.blogspot.com
Iam suggesting United States be splitup into three countries. these countries would all be big powerfull countries , Ist 2cd and 3rd wealthest countries in the world. Iam very disatisfied with our bully tactics used all over the world Right now United States is trying defeat Al Qaeda in both Iran and Afganistan . And at the same time trying to establish Al Qaeda in Bosnia and Kosovo . Our goverment has lost all creditability world wide and in America , They are on some kinda new world order dream , that I believe we could perhaps better understand if we had three reasonably sized goverments .
Unity 08 is something I just heard about from Hamilton Jordan . I would like to try it here in Minn . We have a very devided gov here , often going all yr fighting between democrats and republicans . This two party system is good for rooting out corruption . But they over do it by spending most of their efforts trying to root out each other . And little or no effort to actualy run the goverment . We have elected independents here Evreybody says thats just throwing away you right to vote . I would rather not vote than vote for somebody that does opposite of what I want . I'am presently not happy enough with either party . Uniy 08 has to come with a platfom of their Agenda before i will vote for them , However I will work for something differant than what we have . 1st of all Iam not in favor of National health insurance . Insurance just raises the costs another 25 percent . The rail roads dont buy liability insurance . We have to modernize our health care . kinda like Henry ford installed the essembly line . Mayo clinic seemed pretty efficient to me . But my local hospital seems very inept at providing service . The medical schools seems to be to restrictive in graduating more doctors . The state medical boards should be made up of people needing service they can pay for , rather than doctors wishing to enhance their incomes . America should strive for more competition
in providing health care . lets talk prices evreybody else does . No body is even talking about the real issue , cost of service often does not make sense with anything provided
Insurance just seems to make the matter worse . As i asked my freind what did that cost . He didnt know he didnt pay for it . Medical billing is a complete secret . A specialty science all by itself . prescriptions do not have to be written in latin anymore . the world has gotten complicated enough so that we really dont need to pay for training in some foreign language . or special secret medical codes .Eliminating all of these hocus pokus ideas could cheapen health care costs . When we had witch doctors we needed some hocus pokus . But now we are supposed to be a moderen society . The health care providers are going to have to join the real world sooner or later anyway . I hope UNITY 08 will looking for ways to help them .
As you said, it's a very complex picture and we have some very ideas that are being present and vetted. Our New American Agenda is emerging and taking shape thanks to good hard work by our delegates.
Steve Beller, PhD
Should Unity08 make endorsements of any candidates running in the Republican and Democratic Primary?
I believe it is alright for Unity '08 to make endorsements, but only to candidates who have both a proven ability and desire to unite. The fundamental belief of Unity'08, as I understand it is to restore the fundamentals of democracy to the US government. This includes having the people's voices heard and opinions expressed. Obviously we elect officials to make decisions on knowledge we sometimes have limited or no knowledge about, but the overall goal of all Americans, I think, is to be able to have important decisions made fairly and rationally. I would steer clear of a candidate like Hilary Clinton, because even with her best efforts to unite, she would be a polorizing figure...People feel to strongly about the past to give a fair shake at the future. Therefore, no matter what her desire, or her capability as a leader, decision-maker or diplomat, she does not possess the ability to fix the current political situation. It would be like asking Stephen Hawkings to build a house... all the knowhow in the world cannot overcome certain limitations.
I think a candidate such as O'bama who has run on a platform from day one as a fresh breath towards politics could be supported. He has demonstrated desire, and as of yet has not contradicted his ability to unite. On the Republican side I think a few candidates might be reasonable. Guiliani has shown ample ability to fix many kinds of problems in NY. A republican who can make things work in a predominantly democratic region may have this capability. He seems to be conservative where people want conservatives (security and the economy) yet liberal in social areas where people want that instead (pro-choice and pro-social freedoms). Personally I think that a Guiliani, O'bama ticket would be ideal...it shows strength, vision, change, and most of all Unity. What can I say...I'm a dreamer
The whole point is for we the people (delegates) to decide and endorse. It's a fundamental point, but one that needs to be repeated.
Unity08 is building enabling mechanisms for the delegation (that would be us) to develop a platform and choose candidates. We're the ones choosing, not them. Right now we're gathering, debating, agreeing and disagreeing. Later this year we'll start nailing down platform planks, and next year we'll choose our candidates.
Unity08 will be the conduit between the people and the candidates we choose, but WE do the choosing, not them.
-GP (gp.in.minnesota@gmail.com)
Join the Unity08 Delegate wiki today! http://www.unity-usa.org
The whole point of Unity08 should be to allow the delegates of Unity08 to decide who and what to endorse. It's the fundamental point of Unity08. But that is not what Unity08 officials have proposed.
What Robert Bingham has actually said is that "Unity08 does not have a platform or a candidate yet because we don't think that is the right way to go about finding common ground and reuniting the country.
"Unity08 is not being divisive. Unity08 is being inclusive. We are asking every single American" (not Unity08 delegates), "what do you think are the most crucial issues facing the country? And, as we" (not Unity08 delegates) will develop that list, we" (not Unity08 delegates) "will start to figure out what questions should be asked of the candidates that are seeking out nomination."
As it turns out, GP, those "enabling mechanisms" are being used to deny Unity08 delegates their right to develop their own political agenda, and the people know it. Until people are convinced their own voices will be clearly heard and accurately counted, they will not participate in Unity08's deception.
ex animo
davidfarrar
The votes for the Agenda are not now, they are later this year. That has been clearly stated.
The voting process for the candidates by the delegation are next year. This too has been clearly stated.
The enabling mechanism also come later in the year, as was shown in the first survey.
-GP (gp.in.minnesota@gmail.com)
Join the Unity08 Delegate wiki today! http://www.unity-usa.org
We have already been given a demonstration on just how manipulative the online convention will be handled come next summer by what just took place with the voting results of the first New American Agenda survey. Unity08 officials have stated the flag has been planted around the results of this first survey. So the process is already underway, most of the issues have already been determined, and only ten percent of the delegates were even given a chance to approve or disapprove of them, let along actually sponsor them.
As you well know, only a small percentage of the overall votes cast were actually counted. These results could have been manipulates in any number of ways. Again, with no verifiable structure in place, we have only Unity08 officials word that they weren't. I don't think there is one, not one, reputable accounting firm who will verify the results of that survey under these conditions. In short, the way our votes were handled in the New American Agenda survey was nothing less than a complete fraud.
Secondly, waiting until the virtual end of the campaign season to develop your political agenda from scratch invites behind the scenes manipulation. In fact, there is absolutely nothing clear or transparent about any of the processes Unity08 officials say they are going to be relying on to insure an accurate vote by the delegate body when it comes time to approve a political platform, choose candidate or even to pose some silly questions.
I know you think I am wrong, but what you think, or even what I think, is really not the problem here. It's what the people think. Unless they can be assured by the process itself that their voices will be heard and their votes accurately recorded, counted and verified, they will not join Unity08 in the numbers needed to be politically viable. It's as simple as that.
ex animo
davidfarrar
Alright is this site about creating awareness for third parties? Thats what I thought, but I see nothing on here that is informational at all. just a bunch of reteric about how we are going to "save america" and re-unite it..yah!!! forget that. Not going to happen unless there is an informational site to go where you can see a list of existing third party candidates and their ideas. All this talk about making nominating our own candidates is just stupid. Is this Steven Colbert thing for real?? Okay, He is a FICTIONAL RIDICULOUS character people, he is a comedic parody of all the O' Riellys and Limbaughs in the world. Steven Colbert is actually a mild mannered comedy writer who would NEVER run for president. Im new to this site, if that is all just a joke then whatever, its not funny and it's misleading. I thought this site might have some merit and be useful, but I must say I am extremely disappointed. Although many of the blogs that the people wrote I found to be very informed and right on which gives me some hope, but the site is just crap right now. I refuse to vote for any of the Democrats or Republican running right now (except for Ron Paul but he seems to be all but out of it) can anyone send a link to any informational sites about existing candidates?
Thanks.
In line with the comment about party's determing the agenda. I live in Florida and the Democratic party has forbidden canidates to campaign here and they are all abiding by it as they do not want to anger NH or Iowa. I think it is humorous for a party to have fund raisers all over the state but disenfranchise the voters of Florida.The election was voted in by the legislature and was sponsered by both Democrats and Republicans. Just another reason to join unity 08
Politcs sure can get ugly, can't it? Nothing's ever quite perfect, but the current major parties are so far from reason that it's almost Monty Python-like.
unity's going to face a lot of struggles too, but we can at least know we'll have more input and participation by the citizenry than what the majors have. We can slap a big 'ole seal on Unity08: "Powered by The People". It's a long road. Should be a fun one too.
-GP (gp.in.minnesota@gmail.com)
Join the Unity08 Delegate wiki today! http://www.unity-usa.org
First of all, I think there is one thing Unity08 is doing is right. That is coming to the people and asking what we want out of our next president. Then develop a platform based on those ideas and allow candidates to come forward and talk about those issues.
Personally, I am uninterested in hearing from anyone who is currently running or has recently served under either of the 2 major parties, because no matter what they say, I can't believe a word out of their mouths. Look at their record and all you will find are contradictions and inconsistencies and they are all beholden to big money, lobbyists, etc. I want to hear from new fresh candidates, real Americans who are not already corrupted by the current political process. Our founding fathers were not accomplished politicians. Just people who saw the need and had the strength of mind to follow through.That is what we need now.
However, I do think that Unity08 has some real work to do and I think it is unrealistic to expect this to work in time for this coming election. It is true that we need to see how Unity08 is going to verify any kind of voting process and ensure honesty and integrity throughout.
I also think they need to change the name. Unity08 is too shortsighted. This should be something that can grow and move beyond this election. How about UnityforAmerica?
Yael~Unconditional Love
Sounds like my kind of directive location
Really Unity08, any relation to establishing a unitarian government?
the peons dont understand unitarian government; but if they read this i'm sure they will look it up/
more pertinant questioning to follow,
good answers and objections thus far.