It looks like a group is trying to get a new, albeit temporary, moderate
third party off the ground: Unity ‘08. Here’s how Chris Cillizza describes the group:
Although details of the group’s aims are somewhat spotty,
Unity ‘08 hopes to harness the power of the Internet to build a community of
activists who will be tasked with choosing a “unity” ticket (made up of one
Democrat and one Republican) during an online “convention” in June 2008.
“That will be after the two parties are likely to have decided in their
primaries who their nominees will be, so the Unity ‘08 convention delegates
would then be able to consider who is best to run against them,” according
to a four-page question and answer document being circulated by the
group.The document summarizing the group’s plan outlines a series of “crucial
issues” that it hopes its presence will force the national parties to
address. These include “global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence
on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors
and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption
of Washington’s lobbying system” and many, many more.
From Unity’s beliefs section:
We are not looking to build a new and permanent party. That
might happen, but our objective is to fix the old parties. A Unity Ticket
in office for one term or even taking part in just one election can bring
new ideas, new integrity and new leaders to the fore.[...]Unity08 divides issues facing the country into two categories: Crucial
Issues - on which America’s future safety and welfare depend; and Important
Issues - which, while vital to some, will not, in our judgment, determine
the fate or future of the United States.In our opinion, Crucial Issues include: Global terrorism, our national
debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as
strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate
change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our
young, the heath care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream
for so many of our people.By contrast, we consider gun control, abortion and gay marriage important
issues, worthy of debate and discussion in a free society, but not issues
that should dominate or even crowd our national agenda.
I’ve got to hand it to these folks — they may be adopting a very realistic
starting position. They aren’t seeking to form a new party, but instead to
focus attention on a few key issues, while tabling a few polarizing issues
that would challenge the formation of any moderate group and create an
entity that is likely to only act as a spoiler.
I’ve written previously that I would like to see the duopoly of the
Democratic and Republican parties broken up, and that I don’t realistically
expect such to happen barring a major change in the domestic political
climate.
The ideas being tossed around by the Unity folks might be a decent short
term goal. It’ll be interesting to see if they get any legs between now
and June ‘08.