One Way Forward

I am reading an e-book called, One Way Forward, The Outsider's Guide to Fixing the Republic, by Lawrence Lessig.

From the Prologue:

I offer these ideas, not as a politician but a citizen, and a committed outsider, who wants a citizen politics to have an important and lasting effect on the Republic.

Money in Politics

In this section he wants to change the source of political funding to be the "People".

1. Public elections must be publicly funded - a system that incentives candidates to raise campaign funds from all of us, in small donations that effectively spreads the influence to all of us. At $50 per voter, this could generate $7 billion each year.

2. Contributions to political campaigns must be encouraged, but optional - This should not be mandated but up to each citizen.

3. Political expenditures separate from a campaign (so called "independent expenditures"), whether by individuals or corporations, should not be banned, but they should be limited - a system where the first x amount of tax revenue paid by each citizen, receives a "democracy voucher". Voters could allocate that voucher, or any part of it, to any candidate who agrees to be funded this way. Unused vouchers could be sent to a party selected by the voucher holder.

When I finish the book I will blog more.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Voting Rights Act under siege

From Political By JOSH GERSTEIN.

An intensifying conservative legal assault on the Voting Rights Act could precipitate what many civil rights advocates regard as the nuclear option: a court ruling striking down one of the core elements of the landmark 1965 law guaranteeing African Americans and other minorities access to the ballot box. At the same time, the view that states should have free rein to change their election laws even in places with a history of Jim Crow seems to be gaining traction within the Republican Party.

Use the above link to read Josh's 3 part column.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Party, Movement or Person?

I have been thinking about this topic for awhile. I have always been a person voter. I have always registered since 1965, in one form or other, as an independent. I have been a voter in NY, CA, NJ, and WA. Since retuning to NY in 2000, I decided to take part in the political process and became a member of the Independence Party and now I am in my 4th term as part of the State Committee and local Executive Committee of the party. Since NY is a Fusion state, I am still able to support candidates of different persuasions who share my objectives of structural political reform.

Here in NY, we have a group called CUIP & IndependentVoting.org whose mission is:

A national strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower the 40% of Americans who identify themselves as independents, to develop a movement of independent voters for progressive post-partisan reform of the American political process. Independents seek to diminish the regressive influence of parties and partisanship by opening up the democratic process. Independents in the CUIP networks are creating new electoral coalitions such as the Black and Independent Alliance, supporting new models of nonpartisan governance and striving for the broadest forms of “bottom-up” participation.

Use the above link to find out more about CUIP.

Here are others with similar thoughs like mine:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg - "Since I've been one of everything in my career at one time or another, I don't think that party matters, What you want are people who are independent in their views. That they don't listen to the party bosses. That they listen to the issues. They're smart enough to analyze it. That they have the experiences that we need in the legislature to know how to address the problems."

Damon Eris, independent blogger - "I am looking forward to the presidential elections of 2040. If, over the next thirty years, the US electorate proves incapable of retiring the majority of sitting legislators and executives, and if, over the same period, the free market proves incapable of retiring the majority of television talking heads we are forced to tolerate, it is a good bet that by 2040 time itself will have retired them for us."

So in the future, are we ready as voters to look at the candidates as indivuals?

NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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Voter anger a media creation?

From a POLITICO article by SEUNG MIN KIM, use the above link to read the entire article, "Political pundits and Democratic politicians scoffed Wednesday at the notion of an anti-incumbent wave hitting campaigns this midterm season, blaming the media for spreading the story line that they insist is not real."

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, pointed out that factoring for current primaries' incumbent losses translated into a 98.3 percent win rate for incumbents so far in 2010. These statistics are about "normal on a 40-year average,” Sabato said, arguing that the idea of an anti-incumbency wave is a “press-manufactured phenomenon.”

If you read the voters comments for these types of articles, they want to "Throw Out the Bums". At last nights New York City Charter Revision Commission, it was discussed that even though the voters were mad about the change in term limits by the mayor and city council, most were reelected.

But this misses the point. You have to give the voters better choices to make a change. This was one of our major reasons for nonpartisan elections or Top Too. Not only would it turn out more voters but give more people the opportunity to run.

The other reason for the primary results is the growth of groups like the Tea Party. These types of far left and right groups is splitting the anti-incumbent and anti-establishment voters.

What do you think is the reason incumbents are still winning?

Michael H. Drucker
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A Special 2008 Post-Election Report

How the Independent Movement Went Left By Going Right

Jacqueline Salit, Executive Editor of The Neo-Independent, issued this special report on the role independents played in the historic 2008 presidential election.

Use the above link to read the report(pdf).

Michael H. Drucker
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With economy in shambles, Congress gets a raise

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

However, at 2.8 percent, the automatic raise that lawmakers receive is only half as large as the 2009 cost of living adjustment of Social Security recipients.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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Divided We Fail

During the 2008 campaign, President-elect Obama committed to working across the aisle for REAL CHANGE on affordable health care and long-term financial security. Remind President-elect Obama about his campaign promise and ask him to take action in his first 100 days.

Use the above link to watch my video.

Michael H. Drucker
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18 Million Independents Vote for Barack Obama

Jackie Salit, President of CUIP and IndependentVoting.org, gives a post-election analysis of the independent movement and the 2008 presidential elections.

Michael H. Drucker
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What happened to New York's Republican Party?

Republicans have lost their 40-year grip on the State Senate (30 to 32), the number of new Democratic voters has surged, and political observers have been left wondering: What's gone wrong with New York's once venerable GOP?

Andrew Eristoff, the Manhattan coordinator for the McCain campaign and a former Republican New York City councilman, wrote a scolding open letter to state Republicans yesterday that declared the state party had "ceased to exist as a viable political organization." "More than an embarrassment, the Republican Party's self-immolation is a disservice to all New Yorkers regardless of party affiliation," Eristoff wrote, admonishing his allies to rebuild the GOP from the ground up.

State Republican officials shrug off the defeat as a one-time setback, arguing Democrats rode the broad coattails of popular President-elect Barack Obama. But other longtime political observers say strategic errors and tactical missteps have caused the GOP to lose both on Long Island and statewide.

"It's hard to make a cut-and-dried judgment that it was Obama's coattails," said William T. Cunningham, a Democrat and former aide to Gov. Hugh Carey. "Maybe in one or two districts." Rather, Cunningham said, the Republicans were hampered by consistently re-electing aging candidates like 82-year-old Sen. Caesar Trunzo (R-Brentwood) or 75-year-old Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Elmhurst). Both have served in the Senate for decades and both lost decisively to younger Democrats Tuesday. The GOP leadership, Cunningham said, has failed to groom younger candidates to rise through the ranks. "Part of being a manager, whether it is a baseball team or a political team, is finding and developing talent," Cunningham said.

Others said the Republicans' critical errors occurred at the grassroots. Stanley Klein, a C.W. Post political science professor and Republican committeeman in Dix Hills, said the party has suffered a painful lack of committeemen in Suffolk. He said more than half of the slots are unfilled in Brookhaven and Islip, the county's largest towns. "You depend on the committeemen to do the work of the party," Klein said of the volunteers who do everything from coordinating campaign events to gathering signatures that get candidates on ballots. "If you don't have foot soldiers, you don't win elections."

It's the fact that the Republican Party has overall become a pit of cronyism and corruption across the board. It is so bad it makes the democrats look not crooked. The Republican party is becoming rapidly the vote people cast so the other guy doesn't win, rather than the first choice.

But a spokesman for Joseph Mondello, who serves both as state and Nassau Republican chairman, insists the criticism of the recent losses is overblown. Anthony Santino cited wins for Nassau GOP incumbents as evidence of solid grassroots organizing and called complaints about losses from proven winners like Maltese and Trunzo "Monday morning quarterbacking." Santino called the losses "the result of an Obama tsunami that overwhelmed a lot of Republican candidates at every level. It's not something that portends a permanent shift."

Michael H. Drucker
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October Video Message to Independents

Jackie Salit of IndependentVoting.org offers pre-election commentary on the financial crisis, the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama, the impact of independents in this election season and more.

Use the above link for more information about IndependentVoting.org.

Michael H. Drucker
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Credit Crisis Battle

Today the House defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue package, ignoring urgent pleas from President Bush and bipartisan congressional leaders to quickly bail out the staggering financial industry.

The economic experts claim this will cause a credit crisis and the sky is falling. But no one has reported that the Feds this morning took actions to handle the problem. So why is it such a rush to do something without the required detail debate on the right solutions. This was reported this morning.

The Federal Reserve and foreign central banks agreed to pump billions of dollars into the global financial system Monday to unlock tight lending that threatens to unhinge the U.S. economy.

The Fed said the action is intended to “expand significantly” the cash available to financial institutions in an effort to relieve the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression. In taking the action, the Fed cited “continued strains” in the demand for short-term funding.

Central banks will continue to work closely and are prepared to take “appropriate steps as needed” to ease the crisis and get banks lending again, the Fed said. The Fed announced its decision shortly after the start of trading Monday morning.

Under one new step, the Fed will boost the amount of 84-day cash loans available to U.S. banks. The Fed is increasing the amount to $75 billion, up from the current $25 billion starting on Oct. 6. Banks bid on a slice of the loans at an auction.

That move will triple the supply of 84-day loans to $225 billion, from $75 billion, the Fed said.

Meanwhile, the Fed will continue to make $75 billion worth of shorter, 28-day loans available to banks.

All told, the total amount of cash loans — 84-day and 28-day — available to banks will double to $300 billion from $150 billion, the Fed said.

Moreover, the Fed will make a total of $620 billion available to other central banks, expanding ongoing currency “swap” arrangements with them where dollars are traded for their currencies. That’s up from $290 billion previously in such arrangements.

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the central banks of Denmark, Norway, Australia and Sweden are involved in those swap arrangements.

The move comes as the U.S. financial meltdown’s tendrils have ensnared banks in Britain, the Benelux and Germany.

By pledging to provide “a very large” cash infusion, the Fed hopes the actions will “reassure financial market participants.”

What do you think about the credit crisis?

Michael H. Drucker
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Jackie Salit's Post Convention Analysis

Jackie Salit added an independent's point of view to the political analysis. Here she appears on the Morning News edition of CBC, September 23, 2008.

Use the above link to read Jackie's NEO-INDEPENDENT Magazine.

Michael H. Drucker
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