I, like many people, am tired of the posturing of the two so-called major parties. Nor do feel comfortable with their take on many issues - they are often too ideological rather than practical.
I also don't like the current process of selecting presidents. The candidates run from state-to-state and get weeded out in the early states as much by the media as by "voters" who have no loyalty to the party whose candidates these voters are choosing.
It was a pleasure to learn of Unity08, an organization that would organize an online convention in June, registered member could discuss and select the candidates, and Unity08 would put the president/vice-president pair selected on the ballot in all 50 states.
When I went to Unity08 this weekend, I found out that they have scaled back and the only web page available is a letter announcing this scaling back. There are no links for further information or contacts. Although Google lists several pages for Unity08, they all link to a "Page not available" page.
I went to a Wikipedia page on Unity08 and found quite a few details about the organization, both pro and con. One of the most serious calls into question promises made and the legitimacy of its financing. See "Questions that Unity08 will not answer".
Like so many endeavors with great ideas and hopes, it seems to have floundered on human frailty. Let us hope that somewhere, sometime, somebody will start a new political movement that is based more on the Founders idea of "public virtue" than on power, prestige, and pecuniary rewards.
Unfortunately, such a group will have to overcome the "spoiler" label. However, this is a false attack. The real spoilers are the people who stay home and don't vote at all. In almost any election, the stay-at-homes outnumber those who voted for the so-called "winner".
