Projects like this one seem to pop up about once a presidential cycle, but [tag]Unity08[/tag] is under the impression that it’s on to something different.
A group of old Washington hands has launched a campaign to remake Internet politics, taking a forum that until now has been associated with ideologues and angry partisans and using it to start a movement culminating in a [tag]bipartisan [/tag][tag]presidential [/tag][tag]ticket [/tag]in [tag]2008[/tag].
The group is called Unity08, and no one would accuse its founders of thinking small. They include Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon, who gained political fame for their role in electing Jimmy Carter 30 years ago, as well as Doug Bailey, a media adviser to former president and representative Gerald R. Ford (R-Mich.). They are being joined by former Maine governor Angus King, an independent.
Their goal is to offer an alternative to the two major party choices — a unity ticket that will emerge after secure, online balloting that they hope will include millions of Americans. In an announcement statement, Unity08 said its efforts are a reaction to a system that has “polarized and alienated the American people” through partisanship and interest-group politics.
It’s like a [tag]third party [/tag]campaign, only instead of nominating candidates from outside the two party system, Unity08 wants to form a ticket with candidates from the two parties — one from each.
The group’s pitch sounds largely inoffensive: Dems and the GOP are “well-intentioned,” but ultimately “trapped in a flawed system.” Unity08 can take steps to address real problems by tapping into online activism, a centrist platform, and a [tag]bipartisan [/tag]ticket.
Unfortunately, the idea is not without flaws.
The first problem that comes to mind is the same concern I had a few weeks ago with the “Purple Party” idea — these guys want to vote for a Dem agenda; they just won’t admit it. Unity08, for example, explains that it wants to address “crucial issues” that the two parties aren’t addressing, including:
“global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our young, the health care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream for so many of our people.”
The group goes on to say that culture-war issues such as “gun control, abortion and gay marriage” should be placed on the back burner while government deals with more pressing matters. All of this sounds eerily similar to what Dems want to do right now.
Next, there are some practical concerns. As Unity08 sees it, a well-qualified leader from each party is going to abandon their party and take on their party’s nominee in a presidential election, while running with a member from the other party. I’m not sure who the group has in mind, but I’m hard pressed to think of a lot of people who’d volunteer for the gig.
Unity08 also offers an oddly mixed message. The group says it’s intent on focusing on “ideas and traditions which unite and empower us as individuals and as a people,” while in the next breath its website features an online game in which Howard Dean and Dick Cheney run over people with their car, accompanied by the message: “Gotcha! Another trip to Democracyland cut short by the parties and special interests!”
The whole thing comes across as a bit of a press stunt. I’ll concede that there are some serious people involved with the project — establishment types who are railing against the establishment — but it’s an endeavor that’s long on rhetoric, short on specifics, and more pie-in-the-sky than substance.