The Radical Center We Don't Need

Discussion in 'Current Events' started by Agent_286, Feb 20, 2012.

  1. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    The Radical Center We Don't Need

    By Robert Kuttner | HuffPost | 02/19/2012 9:39 pm

    Excerpts:

    “Tom Friedman of the New York Times is claiming that what America needs to fix our economic and political mess is a radically centrist third party. Radical in this case means conservative when it comes to belt-tightening. Friedman urges a third party "to fill the space between the conservative Santorum (or even Mitt Romney) and the left-of-center Barack Obama."

    This time, he has a candidate, David Walker, formerly president of the austerity-mongering Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Walker, who served in a previous life as head of the General Accounting Office, has been barnstorming around the country, denying that he is running for anything, blaming America's woes on Social Security, Medicare, and Federal deficits.

    Normally, a single-issue crusader like Walker would not get to first base. But this time, a dubious group of Wall Street multi-millionaires has created a vehicle for the likes of Walker called Americans Elect, to reserve a third party spot on the ballot, with the candidate to be selected later. They claim that the goal is to enhance democracy and break partisan deadlock. Americans Elect has already raised $22 million, and has qualified its yet-to-be named candidate for the ballot in 14 states including California. With some 6,000 paid and volunteer canvassers, they hope to gain a ballot slot in every state. Later this spring, its 350,000 members will vote via the Internet for their choice of nominee.

    However, if the self-appointed steering committee of hedge fund private equity magnates doesn't like the public's choice (Bernie Sanders? Ron Paul?), they get to override it. As Ronald Reagan once memorably said, I paid for this microphone.

    The brand name is Americans Elect, but it might as well be Money Talks.

    If anything, Americans Elect and David Walker epitomize all that's wrong with American democracy. Americans Elect is the creature of multi-millionaires and billionaires, who now have the ability to spend infinite money putting their thumbs on the scales of American democracy thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision. Walker himself enjoys his enlarged megaphone thanks to the billion dollars that retired private equity mogul Pete Peterson put into the austerity crusade.

    The deadlock preventing solutions to America's real problems is not the result of a symmetrical partisan stand-off. Republicans are surely farther to the right than any mainstream party in American history, but today's Democrats are hardly left-wing.
    The policy stalemate is simply the consequence of Republicans blocking everything Obama proposes.

    We already have a centrist party. It's called the Democrats. Obama's Democrats are to the right of Richard Nixon on most domestic economic issues. If Democrats had not joined Republicans in financial deregulation, we never would have had the economic collapse of 2008.

    What ails America is not the long term budget projections of Social Security or even Medicare, but the continuing knock-on effects of the financial collapse of 2007-2008. The weakness of the housing sector, combined with lagging wages and persistently high unemployment, is leading to a prolonged period of deflation. More fiscal austerity would only make things worse.

    If you want to balance Social Security's books long term, the solution is to increase wages - the source of payroll taxes. Had wages increased with the economy's productivity for the 30 years after 1979 as they had for the 30 years before, Social Security would be in surplus forever. Alternatively, raise the ceiling on which payroll taxes are levied. Social Security has nothing whatever to do with the current economic crisis. And if you want to fix Medicare, fix the rest of the health system, which is the world's most inefficient because of the dominance of commercial interests.

    A secretive independent party financed by hedge fund and private equity plutocrats is not only a blight on the democratic process, it could end up being a dangerous wild card in a momentous election.

    If Rick Santorum is the Republican nominee, it's reasonable to expect an Obama win, maybe even by a landslide. Santorum is just too far to the right of most Americans. But if a Wall Street financed independent is on the ballot, running as a conservative on fiscal issues and a moderate on social issues, there's no telling how the election might play out. Such a candidate might draw off Republican votes - or could attract independents who would otherwise back Obama.

    The Washington Post editorial page has been an ongoing commercial for fiscal austerity, and has generally gotten a very respectful press. It was the influence of the deficit hawks that pushed Obama into appointing the late and little-lamented Bowles Simpson commission, which in turn compelled the president to waste nearly a year obsessing about budget balance when he should have stayed focused on recovery

    Austerity, as we see in Europe, is absolutely the wrong economic policy. It feeds on itself, driving the economy deeper into a hole. As GDP sags, wages and tax receipts sag with it, making budget balance a vanishing mirage. The more you cut the deficit, the more the economy falters, and the cycle repeats.”

    read full article:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/americans-elect-third-party_b_1288110.html
    .......

    I agree that we need a third party, nothing radical, but toward thye center to take some of the cronyism.corruption out of politics and back into serving the public which elects them, but I don’t think another SuperPac by a multibilllionaire to get soemone elected to a 3rd party is the way to go. There should be a stipulated amount set up for each party, to be divided between the candidates; that ads must be approved by each party, and that each campaign needs to project a respectful, adult, truthful agenda so that Americans can know exactly what a candidate stands for, and how he would fix each of the problems then plaguing the country.

    Congress should take refresher courses in how to conduct themselves in a professional manner, to take an oath every six months to faithfully serve the public, not themselves and their personal interests. Lobbying should be banned forever, and any Congressman that is guilty of bribery, accepting gifts, money, lavish weekends should be fired, and fined a huge amount to discourage anyone else from fraud and corruption.

    Only when all these ills are corrected, and a third party formed, will Congress and America begin to prosper again.
     
    Surfer Joe and (deleted member) like this.
  2. TheLastBoyScout

    TheLastBoyScout New Member

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    An option besides Democratic or Republican is very appealing to me these days.
     
  3. RP12

    RP12 Well-Known Member

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    If it had no ties to either party then yes. If it was another "Tea Party" like movement that got hijacked then no thanks.
     
  4. Agent_286

    Agent_286 New Member

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    ......

    Absolutely, but I didn't like the option of 1) a "radically centrist" third party and 2) the officers of the party being able to negate the candidate if they choose to.

    We really do need a third party tho, to shake things up....
     
  5. Bondo

    Bondo Well-Known Member

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    Ayuh,... So you want a 3rd party candidate that Doesn't do everything Obo's been doin' since '06,..??
    'n you want a Congress that Doesn't do everything Pelosi, 'n Reid, 'n their gang of Theives have been doin',..??

    Ok,... I'm cool with that...

    Let's ditch Reid, Right now, 'n Obo in november....
     
  6. Professor Peabody

    Professor Peabody Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They need a third party to split the moderate vote like Perot did for Clinton. Clinton won the White House with 42% of the popular vote. Obama and his supporters have a vested interest in adding their own Ross Perot to the mix for 2012. It's the only for Bungling Barry to win a second term.
     

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