Ads for a moderate party

A coin is flipped and lands on the left side of a line.  "Heads - nobody wins."  A coin is flipped and lands on the right side of the line.  "Tails - everybody loses."  A coin is flipped, lands on edge on the line, and rolls off into the future.  "You can make the 'improbable' happen."

A person tries to budge an elephant.  The person tries to budge a donkey.  The person jumps on a horse, into a car, whatever, and goes off to the future.

Abraham Lincoln said, "As our case is new, so must we think anew."  Third party candidates have become president.

There is hate and there is hate

Thomas Friedman wrote a good column on the dangerous level of divisiveness in this country - "Where Did 'We' Go?", New York Times, 2009-09-29.

He compares the situation in Israel before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 with the situation in the United States now. He thinks the vitriol in much of the anti-Obama rhetoric is going to lead somebody to take extreme action.

He also thinks that the level of criticism leveled at all presidents since 1992 has made it difficult for them to govern. He postulates that George H. W. Bush was the last "legitimate" president.

I was going to add a comment about the need for a viable third party when there were 42 comments, but I had to be elsewhere. When I got back there were 201 comments and a note that "Comments are no longer being accepted." Now, nearly 8:30 in the evening, there are 393 comments!

I did read or skim the 201 comments. They ran from the very thoughtful to the very shallow and divisive. The worst were those that divided left and right with one being good and the other being bad, depending on the persuasion of the writer. I had less sympathy for many on the right because they didn't consider the degree of difference in criticism of presidents. There is a big difference between satirizing a president and creating lies about a president. There is a big difference between calling a president an idiot (aren't they all in one way or another?) and saying that president was not born where he was.

Interestingly, the critics on the right say that the "liberal media" don't criticize the president. Let's see, Steve Sack of the Star Tribune and Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury have drawn cartoons criticizing Obama.

A reasonable conservative speaks out

Today's Star Tribune had an op-ed piece titled "My fellow conservatives: Can we think?" written by Rod Dreher of the Dallas Morning News. It was originally published 2009-09-11 as "Zombie conservatives at the schoolhouse door". If you read the original, be sure to read some of the thoughtful comments that follow.

Dreher is really not happy about the words and actions of many who claim to be conservatives. He laments that thoughtful conservatives have no place to go. I suggest that people who think as he does should start shopping the various moderate parties. As one said who was in on the ground floor of a new party said, "As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew."

The time for a moderate party is now

Today's Star Tribune printed a column by David Brooks that they titled "Moderates, this is your call to action". The original was published in the New York Times on March 3 as "A Moderate Manifesto".

I hope all non-Limbaugh Republicans, all Democrats who think President Obama and Congress are overreaching, and those who have no party affiliation but think seriously about governance will start to come together to form a real third party - a party that both marginalizes those with a narrow agenda and reigns in those who think the federal government should be concerned with everything. It has been 155 years since there was a viable third party; we are long overdue for a new major party.

I have had some hopes that the Independence Party of Minnesota would be one of the catalysts, but they have or had two problems.

First is the problem of "throwing votes away" by voting for a third party. This is a serious problem in the U.S. We keep getting the "lesser of two evils". I wonder who threw their votes away in the latest Minnesota vote for U.S. Senator - those who voted for Al Franken or those who voted for Norm Coleman?

Second, the Independence Party had too many gimmicks in its platform or principles. Two that come to mind are calling for a unicameral legislature and instant-runoff voting. I mentioned this to Dean Barkley, the unsuccessful Independence Senatorial candidate when he sent me a solicitation email. I kept telling myself to send my own thoughts to the party, but I never got around to it. I think others may have had some of my concerns; I couldn't find unicameral and IRV on the current pages of the Independence Party.

David Brooks, I hope this blog is a contribution to your call to action.

See also "The Moderate Manifesto", Reader Weekly, 2004-11-18

Is the time ripe for a new moderate party?

After I posted the "Simple platform" entry, I read "A Case of the Blues" by Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New York Times Magazine, March 30, 2008. It centers on Tom Cole, OK-R, and chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the daunting task he has to get Republicans elected to Congress.

Given the shift away from some of the ideologies of the Republican Party, would a party that was seen as more practical make serious inroads on the "Two-Party System"? It is past time for a party to do what the Republicans did in 1854-1860 - forming a party and within six years winning the presidency.

Simple platform for a moderate party

Many party platforms are laundry lists of ideas and proposed legislation that members want or oppose. It is impossible for candidates to act on so many ideas or even present coherent views on all of them. The 2004 platforms were 43 pages(Democrats) and 92 pages (Republicans). In 2008 The Independence Party of Minnesota has a reasonably simple platform, but its seven-page platform contains too many gimmicks as solutions to certain problems.

I would feel more comfortable supporting a party that had a simple platform like the following:

1. A civil society needs to strive for a balance between individual freedom and the common good.
2. The U.S. Constitution should be a starting point for determining this balance.
3. A civil society will never have complete agreement as to where the balance is.
4. Today's solutions may become tomorrow's problems.
5. All else is commentary.

Time for Republicans of integrity to bolt the party

I've long been disenchanted with both "major parties" and been unhappy that the election process locks in the choice between "excessive government" and "excessive individualism (except for what they don't like)".

Six Republican Minnesota legislatures supported an override of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a transportation bill. For this "breaking of party discipline" the minority leader has stripped them of their committee positions. Very strange considering that Republicans pride themselves on being for individual choice and responsibility.

I think this may be an excellent opportunity for these legislatures to bolt their party, especially considering that they represent districts that are voting more Democratic. However, the Democrats are not really the answer for these legislatures. Rather, I think they should either start a new moderate party or join an existing moderate party.

A new moderate party would have a relatively simple principle: the need for a balance between individual choice and the common good. Anything more could lock the party into positions that would be irrelevant or counterproductive in the future.

An existing moderate party is the Independence Party of Minnesota. You can find its principles at http://www.mnip.org/principles.shtml. This page has links to the party's platform and other information. Personally, I find the platform has too many details.

If you think that a vote for the Independence Party will be a "wasted vote", remember that third-party gubernatorial candidate Jesse Ventura, last in the polls, was elected governor in 1998. And if you keep voting for either the left or the right, you might be left right out of a bright future.

See also "Voting is not a horse race".