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Unity08
Can
a purple I
first heard about Unity08 last week. I read about it in Newsweek the day after
that magazine was delivered to my house. Newsweek mentioned a website with the
same name: http://unity08.com
which I then visited. Like hundreds of other visitors I posted a comment. (Not
all of them were favorable) Afterwards, I went to my blog and posted a favorable
comment about the project and linked it to their website. Within moments someone
sent me an email with a text summary of a radio interview about the
organization. I linked to that as well on my blog. Later that night on PBS’s
News Hour I heard two Unity08 founders interviewed live. Before turning in for
the night I read Andrew Sullivan’s blog, the Daily Dish, which mentioned the organization yet again. This
remarkable Internet driven buzz is why Unity 08 may have more than a fighting
chance of succeeding. It wouldn’t be the first time such a movement to find an
alternative presidential candidate took hold although, as far as I know, it
would be the first time that such a movement was started by committee. Could
this succeed? In
1992 a self-made, non-swearing, Texas-hailing, computer-selling,
multi-millionaire H. Ross Perot became a wild card candidate for President.
“Look in the mirror,” Ross told us and you will see what’s wrong with Ross
and his Reform Party’s stunning success came about because it appealed for the
first time in years to people in the middle. Today, just as in 1992, the people
in the middle are feeling as though the political parties are giving them short
shrift. I’ve heard folks on both the far left and far right describe centrists
contemptuously as wishy-washy because we won’t swallow their black and white
positions. We centrists would say of ourselves that we simply see both sides of
the issues. While centrists regard this way of looking at things as wisdom the
extremists regard our ambivalence as something closer to a moral failing. For
the moment I’m focused on the 2006 election because I’m rooting for the
Democrats to take over Congress. I’m not pulling for the Democrats so much
because I want Democratic extremists in take charge but because I want to curb
the power of the Republican extremists. Still,
I can understand the nation’s irresistible interest in the Oval Office and the
early front runners. Why you’d have to be a professional lobbyist to keep
track of all 535 of those pesky congressmen and senators. Some
people are watching Hillary Clinton at once fascinated and repelled by her
seeming lock on the Democratic nomination. Others are gaping at Al Gore’s
Lazarus-like rebirth after the movie industry and Mother Earth laid hands on
him. Yet others are wincing to see the straight-talking maverick John McCain pay
homage to his former nemesis, Jerry Falwell. Who knows how these candidates will
respond should the American center wake up and unite? It sure will be fun to
watch. Every
politician strives to get
50.1 percent of the vote. This is the magic number that generally
guarantees a politician victory. (As Al Gore knows all too well, the presidency
is a notable exception to this rule because the Electoral College is a different
beast.) But until recently candidates trying to achieve 50.1 percent of the vote
did it by appealing to 100% of the voters. What’s changed today in our new
interest group dominated environment is that politicians try to win 50.1 percent
of the vote by appealing to just 50.1 percent of the voters. It’s taken for
granted that no matter how disappointed the centrists will be after a primary
they will still vote in the general election for whichever party they lean
toward. Unity08 could change that political calculus. So,
Republicans and Democrats, go ahead and nominate your boot licking, extremist
fawning, candidates and see how many votes they get. And all you weak-kneed,
wishy-washies - stand up and be counted! Your nation needs you as never before.
Welty is a small time
politician who lets it all hang out at: www.lincolndemocrat.com |