Sarah Palin Could Become an Independent

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for Vice President responded to a Fox News Channel viewer’s Twitter question Saturday about the possibility of her and conservative talker Mark Levin abandoning the Republican Party and creating something called the “Freedom Party.”

The question: "Would you & Mark Levin be willing to build a "Freedom Party" if GOP continues to ignore conservatives?"

Palin suggested she is open to the idea and said that if the GOP continues to abandon its conservative principles, other would follow suit.

“I love the name of that party — the ‘Freedom Party,’” Palin said. “And if the GOP continues to back away from the planks in our platform, from the principles that built this party of Lincoln and Reagan, then yeah, more and more of us are going to start saying, ‘You know, what’s wrong with being independent,’ kind of with that libertarian streak that much of us have. In other words, we want government to back off and not infringe upon our rights. I think there will be a lot of us who start saying ‘GOP, if you abandon us, we have nowhere else to go except to become more independent and not enlisted in a one or the other private majority parties that rule in our nation, either a Democrat or a Republican.’ Remember these are private parties, and you know, no one forces us to be enlisted in either party.”










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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The Open Candidate Selection Process

There is a lot of talk about "Open Primaries". But I have found this is interpreted in many ways and most are not how I see it.

States use many different methods to select candidates: primaries, caucus, convention, etc. But these require a voter to pick a parties selection process.

But with close to 40% of registered voters not selecting a party, the current systems do not work.

Today, these voters want to select the candidates not a party.

View this clip to get an idea of what I am talking about:



The structural reform requires the following:

1. Open the ballot process to all who want to be candidates.
2. Open the selection process to all registered voters.
3. Make the selection process of all candidates on one ballot so we can select candidates and not parties.

At this point I need your help. After the selection process I do not have a good answer for the General Election. If you have read my previous posts I have discussed modified versions of Top Two. But I am still looking for a best version not just better.

I think the next step in the needed changes to our system is to get more independents or minor party candidates elected so the two major parties lose their majority and would then need to create coalitions to make better decisions for the country.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Independents are not Moderates

This is from an Op-Ed that Sarah wrote in response to Pew Research Center's survey "Beyond Red vs. Blue.

Sarah Lyons, Director of Communications
IndependentVoting.org

Pew Research Center released a survey last month which was encouragingly called "Beyond Red vs. Blue." Encouraging, that is, for the growing number of Americans eager to find a way out of the partisanship which has come to dominate public policy making at nearly every level of government.

The study, an 150 page analysis, was quickly digested by reporters eager to get a leg up on the latest political trends just as the Republicans held their first televised Presidential debate in South Carolina which, notably, holds both an early primary and an open primary in which independents are allowed to vote.

"Voters More Complex than Red/Blue" wrote ABC political director Amy Walter. "The Misunderstood Independent," echoed Aaron Black and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post.

The fifth study of its kind conducted by Pew since 1987, the survey aims to give a broad overview of the character of the electorate and sorts Americans into eight cohesive groups based on values, political beliefs, and party affiliation.

Three of the eight classifications that emerged from this year's study were dedicated to independent voters, up from 2 classifications in the 2005 survey. More importantly, the presence of independents was evident across all five of the remaining classifications including those meant to define Democratic and Republican voters. In those groups, independents comprised 15% - 34% of their total makeup. Independents are everywhere it seems.

Pew acknowledged this in their report stating, "In recent years, the public has become increasingly averse to partisan labels ... There has been a sharp rise in the percentage of independents-from 30% in 2005 to 37% currently."

The survey also encouragingly pointed out that, contrary to much theorizing that independents comprise "the center" of American political life, they remain a diverse lot with strong opinions. "The growing rejection of partisan identification does not imply a trend toward political moderation, however. In fact, the number of people describing their political ideology as moderate has, if anything, been dropping," wrote Pew, acknowledging that while independents have come to played a central role in the last three national elections-this does not a "center" make.

Pew's findings amplify our own, discovered not through polling, but through the activity of organizing independents over the course of two decades. Independents are not in the middle between Democrats and Republicans. Rather, they want to move beyond the confines of parties altogether.

Perhaps more so than any other group of American voters, independents are attuned to the fact that partisanship is not a behavioral issue, it is a structural one. Since partisanship is produced by the structure of politics, addressing the issue of partisanship meaningfully means changing the political structure. That's why reforms like open primaries and nonpartisan elections are so popular among independents.

This oped has appeared in: The Granite Bay Mirror, SW News Herald, Asia American Press, Union County Pulse, Placer Sentinel, Muskegon Chronicle, California Crusader News, American River Messenger, Arden Advocate, Carmichael Times, Natomas Messenger, Orangevale Sun, Sacramento Oracle, Auburn Sentinel, and The Hankster.

Sarah is also the Chair of Staten Island Independence Party, part of the New York City Independence Party Organizations.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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New Yorkers Rally For True Independents!

If you are in New York City on June 4th, you are invited to this rally.



Use the above link for more information.

Michael H. Drucker
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National Conference for Independents

SAVE THE DATE!

The Committee for a Unified Independent Party

will host its biennial

National Conference for Independents

in New York City

Sunday, January 25, 2009

(Opening Reception on the evening of Saturday, January 24th Workshops and Trainings, Monday, January 26th)

Details to Follow
Check the above link (www.independentvoting.org) for updates!

For more information, contact Nancy Ross at 1-800-228-3201 or via email at national@cuip.org

Committee for a Unified Independent Party
225 Broadway, Suite 2010
New York, New York 10007
(212) 609-2800


Michael H. Drucker
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Grassroots 2008

I was watching a C-SPAN conference about the 2008 Presidential campaigning. The panel indicated this is a grassroots year and maybe the last year of top-down politics. They spoke about how Obama using web 2.0 tools has given the grassroot a way to use their power to affect this election. One of the most effective has been the Caucuses. They explained how he has put 150,000 grassroot voters on the ground in Texas. The web 2.0 tools has created both the money effort but just as important the way to organize and give the grassroots a voice. Thet discussed how Obama understood how to energize the grassroot voter and Clinton ignored it and this would be the major blunder of 2008.

What are your thoughts about Grassroot 2008.

"I've just never understood why, just because you're a member of a party, you have special rights. That's not the civics that I learned in junior high school, and if Ralph Nader wants to run, good luck to him." - Mayor Bloomberg

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has added more fuel to the fire with his latest comments in regards to Ralph Nader's announcement on Sunday that he is running for president. Bloomberg declared there's no such thing as a spoiler and said time is running out for third-party contenders to get into the race.

"This business of Ralph Nader being a spoiler -- you know, in any three-way race, two of the three are going to be spoilers," Bloomberg said. "Come on. Everybody's got a right to do it -- you're not spoiling anything."

"If people want to vote for you, let them vote for you, and why shouldn't they?" he added.

Michael H. Drucker
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Bloomberg's Independence Primer

This week TIME spoke with ballot access expert Clayton Mulford, who ran both of Ross Perot's Independent candidacies as campaign manager and principle spokesperson in 1992 and as general counsel in 1996. Mulford, a 51-year-old corporate security lawyer and Director of Peerless Manufacturing Co., more recently has been working with the National Math and Science Initiative, a nonprofit education organization geared at expanding school programs in those areas. On Friday, January 18 in Austin, Texas, he met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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Open Primaries

Here is a sample letter to your paper if your state has closed primaries:

Dear Editor,
Everyone's talking about the impact independent voters are having in this presidential election. But in 18 states, independents can't vote in the primaries or caucuses. With polls showing independents making up 40% of the electorate, closed primaries disenfranchise a significant number of the American people. Currently, the law allows the Democrats and Republicans to determine whether independents can vote in primaries. But shouldn't our rights as voters trump the rights of the political parties? Shouldn't all of us, whether we are Democrats, Republicans or independents, have a fundamental right to participate in every stage of our election process? And who pays the costs associated with holding primaries and caucuses of these quasi-governmental entities, the Democrats and Republicans? In the vast majority of states, it's the taxpayers.

Independent voters in closed primary states don't enjoy the rights of full citizenship and are excluded from what is often the most critical part of the electoral process. In these states, where one party often dominates, the primary election is the only one that matters. The general election is a rubber stamp of the primary's results, and then, the votes of independent voters are irrelevant. Voter interest and participation increase when independent voters are permitted to participate in the primaries. It forces the candidates to be less partisan, and to address problems that affect all Americans, so they appeal to all voters.

Our primaries are not open to independents. Independents are getting together as part of a growing network in our state and in the country (see www.independentvoting.org) to loudly demand that democracy and the voters come before party interests. The parties should open their primaries!

Get involved and write!

Michael H. Drucker
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Independent Voters

The following is from an article by Stanley Fish the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and a professor of law at Florida International University, in Miami, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Use the above link to read the entire article "Against Independent Voters".

What do independent voters do? Well, most of all, they talk about the virtue of being an independent voter. When they are asked to explain what that means, they say, “I can’t stand the partisan atmosphere that has infected our politics” (forgetting that politics is partisan by definition); or “we like to make up our own minds and don’t want anyone telling us what to do (as if Democrats and Republicans were sheep eager to go over whatever cliff the leadership brings them to) or (and this was a favorite of those interviewed in Iowa and New Hampshire), “We vote the person rather than the party.”

This is a comment on the article from a reader:

"In my view, presidential elections are just means to an end, and not ends in themselves. Consequently, I find it puzzling why someone would register as an independent. As far as I know, being an independent voter only denies one the opportunity to participate in primaries or caucuses in certain states. It confers no tactical advantages over those registered for one of the two major political parties. My own political philosophy is, as is the case for numerous others, well represented by neither of these parties, which leads me to have little loyalty towards either. Still, I am registered as a member of one because of the extra opportunity it affords me to participate in the democratic process."

There are different ways to view this. Yes if you believe there should be only a two-party system, you would have to register so you can take part in the selection process. But if you want to change the two-party system you need to start by rejecting it. One way to do this is to fight for non-partisan elections where all voters collectively go through the political process regardless of party loyalty.

This process will need to start locally and work its way through to the state and then national governing systems. I can only hope we can put independent members of the political process in place to help express our views and cause all politicans to listen to what the voters have to say and form coalitions for doing the peoples work.

Michael H. Drucker
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Independents Will Make the Difference

On the political calendar, February 5th is a date that looms large. Twenty-two states hold presidential primaries or caucuses. No wonder it’s been dubbed not only Super Tuesday, but in some quarters Tsunami Tuesday. What is the Super Big Wave that could sweep through 15 of those 22 states? Independent voters – who are eligible to cast ballots in open primaries and caucuses.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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WA invasion of voters' right to privacy

Many Washington voters will be shocked and offended to learn that their private votes will not be counted in the Feb. 19 presidential primary unless they make a "political party declaration." That declaration will be provided to the political parties and will be publicly available under the state public records act.

Under WA populist traditions, a voter previously could make a primary-election choice for president in the privacy of the voter's booth, confident that the vote would be counted and the privacy of his or her party selection would be protected. The principle has been that no one is entitled to know your party preference. It is simply no one's business except your own

The voters passed an initiative in 1988 to have a presidential primary every four years. In the last presidential primary, voters had the option to cast an unaffiliated or independent ballot, and 40 percent of voters chose to maintain their political anonymity. In 2007, the Legislature eliminated that option, so a person wishing to vote in the upcoming February presidential primary will be required to declare a political affiliation. Such a declaration is particularly inappropriate when it does not reflect an independent voter's actual affiliation, or lack thereof.

With one's party preference exposed for campaigns and other observers to see, targeted telephone calls and mail solicitations would inevitably follow. Voters would risk criticism by partisans on the other side because of this loss of their privacy.

If you believe that the planned "political party declaration" is an inappropriate invasion of the WA voters' right to political privacy, please contact your WA state legislators and demand early action in the upcoming session to repeal the written political party declarations for WA's February presidential primary.

Michael H. Drucker
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Final IndependentPrimary.Com Voting Results

The results are in!

Over 110,000 people voted in IndependentPrimary.com.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich won the internet poll on the Democratic side. And Rep. Ron Paul won on the Republican side.

As long-time independents we decided to do this poll because we were very concerned that Kucinich, Paul and Gravel were excluded from some of the televised debates by the corporate media. We believe elections should be competitive and that the voters should decide at the polls! We want to give voters the authority to vote with their hearts.

Independents can swing the 2008 primary elections.

Use the above link to view the entire vote results.

Michael H. Drucker
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