Ben Goddard most recent article in The Hill notes the polarized American political system and mentions Unity08 as a solution. Click here to read “The Coming Independent Wave.”
He explains that Washington is exposed to a “bitter, partisan, poisoned atmosphere” that is eroding any semblance of public approval. He cites a recent poll by Peter Hart and Bill McInturff that “found no more than 35 percent of voters giving either political party favorable marks.”
Goddard: "Hart says that in his forty years of polling this is the first time he has ever seen both parties held in such low esteem. Usually when Democrats are down Republicans are up, and vice versa. Not this year. The attitude of voters is 'a pox on both their houses.' That is a message that should greatly concern the leaders of both parties."
He believes this has happened (at least partially) because of the lack of debate on important issues by national leaders.
Goddard: "The tone of political discourse, evidenced by the useless posturing of both parties over nonbinding resolutions on the war in Iraq and nonstarter gay-marriage bans, has destroyed confidence not just in Congress but in the leadership of both major political parties."
And is fed up himself. Goddard: "I have also spent 40 years involved in electoral politics. (I started out as a child.) I have never seen the sort of exhausted frustration with our nation’s political leadership that I witness today."
What do you think of Goddard’s analysis? Do you agree? And, more importantly, what must Unity08 do to give voters hope in the system again?
The erosion has been going on for decades. It won't be repaired in a few short years.
Between the spin doctors, PR flacks, and beauty pagents, there's no way to find out about the person. Traditional media -- notably TV -- has reduced every issue to a 30second sound bite and none of these are simple issues. Getting valid, reliable information on candidates is an enormous problem.
Beyond which, even getting the information doesn't guarantee that once the election's over, the official's positions will match the candidate's. Ya, we can vote him out, but we repeat the cycle.
And it's not just at the Presidential level. It's also the Congress .. and it's bleeding down to the State.
What *I* would like to see (and I accept that I may be in the minority):
- A vetted and fact checked summary of the candidate's career. Not the propaganda they put out themselves, but a verified resume or vita. A one page executive summary and as much supporting documentation as it takes. Each candidate can comment on his own vita -- but in an appendix that we can easily ignore.
- A series of debates. Any candidate that refuses to participate in the debate is rejected out of hand. Have a nice day. There should be maybe seven debates. (I don't know.. I'm pulling these out of thin air as I'm typing)
- Foreign policy,
- General domestic policy,
- Economic policy,
- Health
- Education
- Welfare
- The three biggest dangers and the three greatest opportunities to America over the next decade
The questions for each debate come half from experts in the field and half from "commoners." The debates are established and moderated by National Forensics League experts or designees. Points are awarded and scores tallied by the judges.
Each candidate gets:
- ONE candidate statement, videoed and text transcribed, explaining why he/she should be (whatever office).
- ONE rebuttal to any other single candidate. (They don't get to rebut the field. They don't get to piss on everybody. They have to pick only one.)
After the filing of statements and rebuttals, a panel will fact check every single statement in every single piece and will identify which are true, which are false, and which are open to interpretation (and what the dimensions of that interpretation are).
Beyond that, they can do whatever they like, take out whatever ads, buy whatever influence, whatever. I don't care, but every ad they buy has to point to these statements and to the fact checked vitas.
- Last, the Federal Election Commission should require UN Election Observers report on the validity of the US elections and be prepared to file suit in whatever court has jurisdiction in the case of voting impropriety.
There's probably other things. I'll post them as I think of them.
As a voter, I have NO hope. Not in the parties. Not in Unity08. Not in the system. Not in the future.
I view my participation in this process like buying a lottery ticket. The chances that it'll do me any good at all are so astronomically small as to be effectively zero. But if I don't buy a ticket, even that small chance doesn't exist.