WaPo Columnist Calls for Radical Centrist Third Party Movement

From Matt Miller at the Washington Post:

I'm a Clinton White House alum who had hoped President Obama could usher in the debate we need. It's hardly all his fault that we're not there, but I'm convinced the parties' interest groups and "thought police" make real progress impossible without a new force that shakes things up. Democrats and Republicans care first and foremost about winning elections, a task that bears no necessary relationship to actually solving our major problems. Having our two-party duopoly control the terms of debate may have sufficed when America was the world's dominant economy, with little competition. But those days are gone. The challenges we face are serious. People know our current arrangements aren't up to them.

Anecdotal evidence: Speaking to 400 professionals of all stripes in California the other day, I asked who would be seriously interested in a third major political party. Fiscally conservative, socially liberal. Nearly every hand shot up.  Something's afoot and it's not just about the Tea Party. The radical center is ready to rise.

John Avlon Profiles Independent Candidates and the State of the Independent Movement at CNN

From John Avlon at CNN:

With the election just days away, most Americans disapprove of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, while 58 percent of our fellow citizens say it's time for a third party. So let's break out of the two-party mold and take a look at some of the independent candidates across the country who are surging or struggling as Election Day approaches.

MA: Independent Seeks to Provide Voice for the Moderate Middle

From Wicked Local:

Like many of her neighbors, K.C. Winslow was fed up with politics as usual. On Beacon Hill and at the national level, she had grown tired of seeing divided parties taking it too far to the right, or too far to the left. “That leaves most of us right here in the middle,” she said. “Especially in this district, I hear that over and over again.”

Unlike many of her neighbors, Winslow decided to do something about it. A Concord resident with no political experience to speak of, Winslow is running as an Independent candidate for the 14th Middlesex District seat state Rep. Cory Atkins, a Concord Democrat,who has held the position since winning a 1999 special election.

New Contributor

As you may have noticed, there is a new contributor here at TPID, Solomon Kleinsmith.  Solomon is an independent advocate of moderate centrism and maintains the website Rise of the Center.  From the mission statement there:

A cursory view of support of the two party system over the last few decades shows a steady move away from the two parties, as they have become more controlled by narrow special interests and have moved farther away from the majority of Americans who stand in the center of the political spectrum. But it wasn’t until more recently that those who consider themselves unrepresented, or underrepresented, began to coalesce into a political force . . .

Voices of moderation are gaining a following in the political blogosphere, new thought leaders are bubbling up amongst the ranks of columnists and authors, and independent faces are showing up on television news. Perhaps the most telling that this groundswell is nearing a potential breakthrough into a full fledged movement is the increasing numbers of viable candidates running for offices, up and down the ballot, across the country.

Here at Rise of the Center, we’ll cover all of these things, show the partisan hacks that middle is anything but mushy and to encourage community among the centrist, moderate and independent thinking electorate.

Here at TPID, Solomon will be sharing posts from Rise of the Center and help keep an eye on the moderate movement.  Thanks for coming aboard, Solomon.

Some Agendas: Black, Independent, Centrist, Extremist

Fred Newman talks about Tavis Smiley, the Black Agenda, Rev. Al Sharpton, Minister Louis Farrakhan, Jessie Jackson, Cornell West and Karl Marx in Talk Talk with Jackie Salit. While campaigns are underway in Louisiana and California for open primaries (Proposition 14 in CA) that would allow independents and decline-to-state voters to vote (right now parties are allowed to exclude these voters), voters in many states are registering into parties in order to vote in primaries. Centrist John Avlon's new book decries political extremes as "wingnuts". NYC Dems don't want charter revision ballot referendum items this year, while Indies want nonpartisan elections.

For more news for independent voters, see The Hankster