NO LABELS, The Centrist Project and the 2016 Presidential Election

From their About Us page:
No Labels is a national citizens organization working inside the Beltway and around the nation to usher in a new era of focused problem solving in American politics. No Labels is for all those who have had it up to their eyebrows with all the petty infighting, party-first agendas and hyper-partisan wheel-spinning that are keeping the government from doing the people’s work.

For No Labels, the prevailing hurdle preventing our nation’s progress isn’t disagreement over particular policies. It’s an attitude, specifically, the hyper-partisan viewpoint that leads far too many of our leaders, and citizens, to completely dismiss, ignore or question the motives of people from the other party.

They say they don’t operate like that. Any member of Congress, conservative, liberal or in between, – can win our approval, so long as she or he is willing to work with any other member to find solutions.

The primary goal of No Labels is to start a national movement that will culminate in a Federal government that sees the presidential administration and both houses of Congress working together to achieve mutually agreed-upon goals that will solve the nation’s problems.

They talk about the two parties not working together. But over 40% of the country are independents, who no longer think these two parties are the answer.

The do ask a good question: When you step out of the voting booth, what kind of country do you want to walk back into?

Their path includes a problem solving President and a functioning Congress that includes a new government process where we actual agree on where we need to go as a country. Then collaborate to find a way to get there together.

CLICK HERE for their website.

The next question is will the current Congress be able to achieve these goals?

I think it is time to look at other candidates who can answer these questions.

The Centrist Project was born to turn ideas into action. It has attracted a dedicated and growing group of people who are trying to solve problems by making the political process work better and elect Independents to Congress.

Think of the Senate with Centrists as the five folding chairs in the center aisle. Republicans have a fiscal responsibility plan? The Centrists will move their chairs over to the right and get it done. Democrats need support for environmental protection? We’ll slide to the left and make it happen. And when the great debates come on social issues, we’ll forge common sense solutions to move the country forward.

And it's easier to achieve success than you might think. Sen. Angus King of Maine, an Independent, already occupies one of those folding chairs. New England in general tends to elect pragmatic leaders from both parties. Then look at any of the swing states (Virginia, Colorado, Florida), and the Midwest states that tend to elect both Republics and Democrats (Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio).

Centrist Principles

If you agree with three or more of these principles, welcome home.

Good Governance - Putting the nation’s long-term interests ahead of the electoral interests of a political party or any narrow interest group.

Solving Problems - Governing a nation of more than 300 million people is inherently difficult and contentious. Set aside ideological purity if it enables to achieve things that are broadly consistent with my views. Let the most important lesson of the United States Constitutional Convention guide my behavior: In a vibrant democracy, compromise is an essential source of strength.

Fiscal Responsibility - Putting the nation on a sound fiscal path. Recognize that this will require a combination of revenue increases, spending cuts and reforms to our major entitlement programs.

Environmental Responsibility - Act as a steward of the environment for future generations. Believe that climate change represents a potential threat to the United States and the international community. Support international efforts to curtail carbon emissions, including policies that raise the cost of polluting behavior.

Social Tolerance - The Federal Government should not involve itself in private behavior that does not affect the broader public. Work to heal America's division on social issues rather than exploiting them for political advantage.

Economic Opportunity - Markets are the most powerful tool for promoting prosperity and innovation. The role of government is to create an environment in which the private sector can thrive; to provide a meaningful safety net; and to ensure that every American has an opportunity to achieve his or her economic potential.

CLICK HERE for their website.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker

Looking for My Version of the Political Middle

I first registered to vote as an independent in 1966, during my service in the Air Force. I voted with military ballots, as a resident of New York. I have also been a resident of Washington, also registered as an independent. So I have been looking for a long time for something other then the two-party system while I traveled the world. I’ve looked at minor parties, but they all had different issues I did not agree with.

So when I returned to New York in 2000, I began researching organizations proposing the concept of structural political reform and discovered the Independence Party of New York City and became a party member, then an elected member: in the Manhattan county committee and the executive committee; and four terms on the state committee. With the concept of fusion voting used in the New York ballot process, there was an opportunity to work with politicians who agreed with our political reform concepts, which lead to supporting the three terms of Mayor Bloombeg.

As an independent activist, I have found the concept of party, no longer works. Many of us, some say part of the 40%, believe we select candidates not parties. But I still look at other solutions to the two-party system.

Pointing to record levels of public disgust for the political classes, moderates fizz with innovative schemes for grabbing power from extremists of the left and right. Some are wiser than others.

Americans Elect was incorporated on April 6, 2010, by Peter Ackerman and Kahlil Byrd as a follow up to his work on Unity08 for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. It opened its website to begin recruiting delegates for its 2012 Presidential Primary in July 2011. During 2011 Americans Elect was placed on the 2012 Presidential ballot in many states. But it never was able to get enough votes from its members to select a presidential slate.

More than 50 members of Congress have joined the bipartisan No Labels group, chaired by Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator from West Virginia, and Jon Huntsman, a former Republican governor of Utah with 2012 presidential ambitions. Members are called “Problem Solvers” rather than centrists, and insist that staunch conservatives and liberals are welcome. Yet they are only talking about the two major party members being nice in some type of mushy middle.

Books and newspaper columns talk of an “insurgency of the rational” and of the “sane, pragmatic majority” taking charge. A political action committee founded by New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, plans to spend millions backing moderates and independents in state and federal elections, with a nicely balanced focus on promoting gun control (angering the right) and school reform (which makes teachers’ unions seethe).

The Common Sense Coalition, set up by entrepreneurs and fund managers, wants an online “Army of Moderates” to lobby candidates and elected officials.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, launches a group pushing education and immigration reforms, using Republican and Democratic strategists.

The same arguments are cited, repeatedly, to explain why the time is ripe for a centrist insurgency. First, Americans are fed up with both big parties, especially in Congress. Great faith is put in the power of technology to help new groups out-organize and out-campaign incumbent party machines, like small furry mammals scampering beneath dinosaur feet.

The moderate start-ups tend to be fiscally conservative but socially liberal, keen on free trade and free markets, worried about social mobility and open to immigration. Some talk of curbing campaign spending and involving more ordinary voters in primaries that select candidates. But there is a hitch. Some say they would struggle to win a majority in any statewide or national election in America.

The globe-spanning nature of that rage undercuts claims that American voter disillusion can be addressed by clever, local innovations. Yes, runaway campaign spending is a headache. But the entire 2010 British general election cost less than some individual Senate races in 2012, and furious British voters still think their politicians are money-grubbing thieves. Broadening primary-voter pools is a good idea. But moderates are wrong to think that America’s self-styled independents are inevitably allies. What unites independents is hatred of politicians, which is not the same thing as centrism.

Even the techno-utopians who talk of reinventing politics are missing the point of such digital triumphs as Barack Obama’s White House runs. Team Obama used new technology to pull off something old-school: to help supporters find voters who resembled themselves, then tell them bad things about Mitt Romney.

Billionaires have every right to have opinions and fund their promotion. Politics could do with more reasoned debate. But beware innovative short-cuts designed to turn centrists into kingmakers, or to shunt aside the traditional parties (tempting though that is). Shrill partisans are a menace, but they enjoy a mandate from the angriest voters—and this is a perilous time to start disenfranchising the angry. The rational middle must advance by persuasion, not revolution.

Now we have found someone that is getting closer to my middle.


Charles Wheelan, a former Economist journalist, who not only lectures on public policy and teaches it at Dartmouth College, but practices it as well, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress from Illinois in 2009 has just written “The Centrist Manifesto”, which advocates that a new, centrist political party be created. His book argues that such a party would be potentially capable of winning four or five U.S. Senate seats, and holding the balance of power in the U.S. Senate.

He outlines a realistic ground game that could net at least five Centrist senators from New England, the Midwest, and elsewhere. With the power to deny a red or blue Senate majority, committed Centrists could take the first step toward giving voice and power to America’s largest, and most rational, voting bloc: the center.

The word "manifesto" typically generates more passion, but it's hard to rouse excitement when espousing a shift toward the center. Yet it's central to the argument that rabble-rousing emotionalism is part of the problem in American politics, where candidates in both parties feel that they must throw red meat to the extremists who are more involved in the nominating process than they are reflective of the citizenry at large. Contrary to analyses that see the country as increasingly polarized, the author suggests that most Americans are far more moderate and that they can find agreement on plenty of issues where two-party politics continues to find stalemate or gridlock. "The challenges we have to deal with as a nation are entirely manageable," he writes. "The key is to mobilize America's inner pragmatism." The strategy focuses on the Senate, where a handful of centrist legislators from swing states or a tradition of electing representatives from both parties could become power brokers, essential to the sort of compromise that reflects most Americans.

Though third-party candidates haven't typically fared well, Wheelan argues that the difference here is that the centrists will come from the common-sense middle rather than the radical fringes. Leftists will have trouble swallowing his antipathy toward unions, while conservatives will find his positions on the environment and gay marriage suspect. But as he works his way through flash-point issues to consensus on abortion and guns, he strives for a rationality that all but ideologues can embrace. It's a sign of the times that this sensible plea for moderation can seem so radical.

But we just said we do not like parties or want centrists, or a mushy middle. What happened to the intelligent independent individual? I want to take away the opportunity for a majority in 2014. Thanks to quirks of Senate arithmetic, a handful of independents could hold the balance of power.

Senators Not Running in 2014

Max Baucus - (D) Montana
Saxby Chambliss – (R) Georgia
Frank Lautenberg – (D) New Jersey
Car Levin – (D) Michigan
Mike Johanns – (R) Nebraska
Tim Johnson – (D) South Dakota
John Rockefeller – (D) West Virginia

Do you think we could take away the majority in Congress with intelligent, independents?










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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No Label's 12 Ways to Make Congress Work

From No Labels: When people think about Congress, they throw up their hands in frustration. But frustration doesn’t get us anywhere. Washington has problems. Now we have solutions. We’ve listed our 12 simple reforms from our Make Congress Work! action plan to change the rules and fix what's broken in Washington.

1. No Budget, No Pay -- If Congress can’t pass a budget and all annual spending bills on time, members of Congress should not get paid.

2. Up or Down Vote on Presidential Appointments -- All presidential nominations should be confirmed or rejected within 90 days of the nomination.

3. Fix the Filibuster -- Require real (not virtual) filibusters and end filibusters on motions to proceed.

4. Empower the Sensible Majority -- Allow a bipartisan majority of members to override a leader or committee chair’s refusal to bring a bill to the floor.

5. Make Members Come to Work -- Make Congress work on coordinated schedules with three five-day work weeks a month in DC and one week in members’ home districts.

6. Question Time for the President -- Provide a monthly forum for members of Congress to ask the president questions to force leaders to debate one another and defend their ideas.

7. Fiscal Report to Congress: Hear it. Read it. Sign it. -- A nonpartisan leader should deliver an annual, televised fiscal update in-person to a joint session of Congress to ensure everyone is working off the same facts.

8. No Pledge but the Oath of Office -- Members should make no pledge but the pledge of allegiance and their formal oath of office.

9. Monthly Bipartisan Gatherings -- The House and Senate should institute monthly, off-the-record and bipartisan gatherings to get members talking across party lines.

10. Bipartisan Seating -- At all joint meetings or sessions of Congress, each member should be seated next to at least one member of the other party.

11. Bipartisan Leadership Committee -- Congressional party leaders should form a bipartisan congressional leadership committee to discuss legislative agendas and substantive solutions.

12. No Negative Campaigns Against Incumbents -- Incumbents from one party should not conduct negative campaigns against sitting members of the opposing party.

I think the 1st step would be to vote for a number of independents to remove the majority possibility's in Congress of the two major parties.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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No Labels Review

Put the Labels Aside. Do What’s Best for America!

From their website:

"We are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America. We understand that Congress must represent a wide range of views, that the major parties exist for a reason, and that there is no way of removing political considerations from policy debates.

We do not seek bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake but out of a conviction that neither party has a monopoly on good ideas and that gridlock is unacceptable when our country’s future hangs in the balance, as it does today. We want a Congress whose members have relearned the art of turning their differences into a source of strength. We think it is reasonable for us as citizens to expect our elected representatives to find ways of coming together to solve our country’s problems in practical and sustainable ways. That is why we send them to Washington."

After watching the streaming event and seeing personal friends speak, I signed their petition, joined, and will keep an eye on this evolving movement.

Listen to the No Labels Anthem by Akon:


Use the above link to find out more about the No Labels movement.

NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Update on Third Party's for 2012

With all the talk about Third Party's competing in 2012, at least two separate organizations have the capacity to get on 50 state ballots.

The more visible of these is No Labels, whose motto is: “Not Left. Not Right. Forward.” Despite its plea to restore “civility” and oppose extremists in both parties, No Labels seems almost exclusively focused on convincing Republicans to assent to “progressive” measures. Fronted by former Bush advisor Mark McKinnon, Michael Bloomberg, Joe Scarborough, and others, its formal public launch will be held December 13 at Columbia University in New York City. Its organizers protest this is “neither a third party nor a stalking horse for any presidential candidate or other candidates.” Its website insists, “No Labels is not interested in encouraging the development of a third party.”

However, in private, its leaders sing a different tune. Mark McKinnon, a longtime advisor to George W. Bush, told David Frum that he knows “some smart people working behind the scenes” working “to resolve ballot access issues and make it easier for a third party to happen.” In an October 22 speech to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, McKinnon admitted “something very exciting” was coming: “A third party in 2012.” An unsuccessful candidate who showed up at No Labels’ New Hampshire road show, Peter Angerhofer practically begged attendees to admit they were forming a minor party. “If you want to create a third party and carve out the middle, that might work,” Angerhofer offered, “but be clear about it.” The St. Louis Business Journal straightforwardly described the group as “a new third party movement.”

The No Labels movement has attracted a constellation of fleeing RINO's. Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman literally wrote the book on the topic. She now heads the Republican Leadership Council, dedicated to slapping the Tea Party’s hands off the levers of power. Another No Labels supporter is Rep. Christopher Shays, a liberal Republican from Connecticut who co-sponsored the House version of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance “reform.” Former Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA, and former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-NY, are also scheduled to attend the December kick off.

The No Labels launch has been talked up by the more aesthetically appealing half of Parker Spitzer. In her Tuesday column, Kathleen Parker wrote that No Labels made her heart flutter. Why, everything an inside-the-Beltway squish could want is here. “All that’s missing from a centrist movement that could be formidable is a leader,” she wrote. “Anyone?” Former Conservative Digest editor Richard Viguerie has called Parker a “pleasantly wishy-washy, mostly plain vanilla Republican” – and he was being generous to a lady and a fellow Southerner. She boasted on CNN, “I led” the character assassination of Sarah Palin, with a September 26, 2008, column stating Palin was “out of her league” and calling on her to drop out of the race.

John P. Avlon is another No Labels organizer. Avlon, a longtime speechwriter for Rudy Giuliani and a policy director for Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign, is now a columnist for The Daily Beast. He has authored two books on centrism and made a career by attacking the Tea Party movement. Avlon is married to Margaret Hoover, a social progressive who is best known as one of the “culture warriors” on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, where she too sides against conservatives on social values.

The closest thing to its beliefs are embodied in a piece Mark McKinnon wrote for The Daily Beast entitled “A Centrist Manifesto.” He again protests he is simply holding the middle ground, where he takes fire from both sides. He frequently says the media are fascinated with the Tea Party but “the real story is in the middle: A third of all adults are not affiliated with either party. And the middle is growing.”

No Labels calls itself a “citizens movement.” To date, it has raised just over $1 million, chickenfeed by national political standards, and claims it has “more than 1,000 people” ready to attend its launch on December 13. But it has the potential to tap into some deep pockets.

Howard Fineman notes No Labels’ “anti-partisan yearnings are common these days, but what makes ‘No Labels’ potentially significant is its organizational ambition and big-buck backers.” One of these is Nancy Jacobson, a longtime fundraiser for retiring Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh who has worked for Hillary Clinton. She is married to Mark Penn, a former Clinton pollster. Fineman calls Jacobson “a prodigious fundraiser with wide contacts.”

The principals of No Labels met in June in Houston in the home of Marty McVey. Curiously, McVey “had dined with President Barack Obama in Washington only a few weeks prior.” McVey’s close relationship with Obama does not square with his stated desire to field a candidate to topple him.

Some Democrats are surprisingly upfront about the fact that they believe Republican internecine warfare will strengthen the Left. When McKinnon, Avlon, and Kiki McLean outlined the concept behind No Labels at the Clinton School of Public Policy, McLean, a Democrat, said, “I am involved in No Labels, because I love my party, I believe in my party, and I want my party to be stronger.” She said, “My work here is to find the window where people can work together again for progress” – although Democrats define “progress” as steady movement to the Left.

The second organization, Americans Elect (AE), is more open about its aims but less well-known. Previously calling itself Unity ’12, and still earlier Unity ’08, AE plans to “nominate a presidential ticket in 2012 that will bridge the vital center of American opinion. The winning presidential and vice presidential nominees will be on the ballot in all 50 states.” AE is financed by Peter Ackerman, a onetime protege of junk bond king Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Ackerman earned a Ph.D. and is on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. He recently headed Freedom House. Michael Bloomberg is taking a wait-and-see attitude. The mayor’s aides say the mayor keeps a watchful eye on the work of Peter Ackerman, after Ackerman donated $1.55 million to Americans Elect.

Once again, the organization has claimed no ongoing affinities between AE and Bloomberg, but the facts seem to say something else. Bob Roth of AE’s predecessor, Unity ’08, insisted in 2008 his organization and the Draft Bloomberg Committee were “totally separate organizations.” However, the two organizations shared an address, and leaders of the organization reportedly registered the Draft Bloomberg website in mid-2007. Key Unity employees worked in the Draft Bloomberg movement.

America Elects has a head start on 2012. It is already recognized as a political party in the state of Nevada. It has reported multiple expenditures to Arno Political Consultants, headed by AE Secretary Kellen Arno, for “Ballot Access Services.” The website Irregular Times, which has monitored America Elects in depth, states the organization is using Arno’s company to gain ballot access status for a presidential ticket in Nevada and Arizona, before branching out nationwide. Irregular Times claims Ackerman is AE’s lone donor. But that may not be the case for long – and there is absolutely no way of knowing. Americans Elect just changed its IRS status from 527 to a 501(c)4, so it will not have to disclose its donors.

Democrats for a Weaker Republican Party Although the most visible leaders of this movement are Republicans (of a sort), a number of Democrats are on board. Among them are Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Evan Bayh of Indiana, and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Los Angeles’ Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, an outspoken Open Borders advocate, will visit the Big Apple later this month. The Wall Street Journal notes its corporate supporters “include co-chairman of Loews Corp. Andrew Tisch, Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich and ex-Facebook executive Dave Morin.”

But I do not believe these types of movements for a new party just to elect a president will not work without first getting a big foot into the guts of Congress. First it will take a major structural political reform of better ballot access and open primaries to get members of a new party or movement into the political process locally. When Congress truly represents the voters then a third party could work. Then the opportunity for coalitions on issues could give a president the ability to work with a non-partisan slant on the tough issues of the day.

What do you think will happen in 2012?

Update

I watched most of the conference streamed on the web. I joined their email list so I can keep up with this movement. I hope just some of their ideas bring more grassroots voters into this fight for open primaries, non-partisan redistricting, and the rest of the issues for structual political reform of our political process.

NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Put the Political Labels Aside

You might be interested in this site if you are tired of political parties.

The Opportunity of Shared Purpose

No Labels does not believe we need to search for better values or principles. The solution is even simpler: we must return to the essence of our beliefs. Most Americans in the vital center of our still great country believe that:

Americans are entitled to a government and a political system that works – driven by shared purpose and common sense.

Americans deserve a government that makes the necessary choices to rein in runaway deficits, secure Social Security and Medicare, and put our country on a viable, sound path going forward.Americans support a government that works to spur employment and economic opportunity by encouraging free and open markets, tempered by sensible regulation.

Americans want a government that empowers people with the tools for success – from a world-class education to affordable healthcare – provided that it does so in a fiscally prudent way.

America should be free from discrimination and should embrace the principle of equal opportunity.

America must be strong and safe, ready and able to protect itself in a world of multiple dangers and uncertainties.

The No Labels movement was born out of support for these shared goals, and we are committed to helping our nation remain true to these values that we all profess in an environment, which encourages fact-based discussions.

We are not labels – we are people.
We must put our labels aside,
And put the issues and what’s best for the nation first.
A promising future awaits us.

Just as citizen movements have played an important role in America since its inception, it is time for another movement, one based on No Labels and the merit of ideas. Thanks to the technological innovation available today, we can break down the old hierarchies of power and influence. True Democracy is possible today because we can tether together online, share our concerns and ideas, and exert enormous influence. Today, we join together and connect with one another, and we can make all our voices heard as our Founding Fathers intended.

Use the above link to find out more about the issues and how you can get involved.

NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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