The Independent View: Welcome to a New Centrist Group, Uniters

Uniters.org aims to build a Two-branched Organization, coupling an Online Political Blog, Community Information and Resources Hub with an Offline Network of Grassroots groups of Centrist Independents and Political Moderates, on the ground, in Cities across the United States.

Launching in January of 2018, their Nonprofit organization will Incorporate as a ‘527 organization’, legally requiring that they Reveal All Donor information and Blocks them from Donating Money to People running for Office. This stems from their Commitment to Political Transparency, both things that they believe should be Required of all Political Organizations.

The Focus of their Fundraising will be on earning Small Dollar Donations from Centrists around the Country who want to see Moderate views more Fairly represented in the Media, and support the Growth of Centrist Candidates.

The Blog we’ll aim to Inform and give Voice to the Underrepresented views of Centrists, they will release both Original blog Posts, as well as welcome Members to Post in the Community section, some of which will be promoted to the Front Page and shared across their large, and growing, Social Media footprint.

Their goal is to grow from being a simple Community Blog for Centrists and Moderates, to a full-fledged Information Hub on all things related to Centrist Politics, Policy Ideas, a Wiki, Profiles of Centrist Organizations, and Links to Content of Interest for Moderate/Centrist and Independent Readers.

Rise of the Center, the Precursor to this site, was brought into being to Debunk Myths, Fight back against Extremists, and Track the Evolution of the emerging rise of the Center. They decided to be more ambitious, and expand into a Community and Activist Network, but Their Original Motivations still stands:

A cursory view of the two party system over the last few decades shows a slow and steady shift 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 in some areas.

While some may call this a movement, it is still most definitely too early to reasonably call it such. A more accurate description would be to call it a groundswell of moderate republicans and democrats, and centrist independents.

Instead of adapting to an increasingly disappointed public by actually listening to them, the two major parties have turned up the dial on the very things that are pushing the American people away from them. It seems all we have to do anymore is wait a few months to see a new bar set on hyper-partisan gamesmanship, absurd dirty campaigning, ethical breaches and blatant pandering to the narrow special interests that own the Democratic and Republican parties.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, their standard response to those who point out that they are losing the support of the core of the American electorate is that these people really are just wishy-washy Democrats or Republicans that just won’t admit it to themselves… which is made even more ridiculous in the face of many years of so called RINO (Republican In Name Only) & DINO (Democrat In Name Only) hunting that has pushed out most of the moderates in the House and Senate, leaving the parties farther apart, more ideologically extreme and more disconnected from the core of the American electorate than they may have ever been.

How do they get away with both pushing moderates and centrists out, while claiming that these same people are really just one of them, but in denial?

I could point fingers in a multitude of directions to explain this, but what it really comes down to is we have failed ourselves. Sure, the media often eats up the partisan talking points, hook, line, and sinker, and sure, the two major parties use their megaphones to drown out our voices… but in a Democracy, the peoples’ job is to speak for themselves. Blaming others really just amounts to a self-defeating attitude that doesn’t help our cause one bit.

The groundswell is breaking through, in the form of grassroots groups all over the country, political nonprofit organizations, fledgling political parties and some political parties that are beginning to wield significant political power in places like Oregon and Minnesota.

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.

Solomon Kleinsmith, Founder / Editor, Uniters.org