The Atlantic Magazine had a cover page story about aspirations for a new political effort, called Unity08. Headed up by such pooh-bahs of former campaigns as Hamilton Jordan, Jerry Rafshoon, and Doug Bailey, Unity08 aims to create a middle of the road ticket for the presidential race in 2008.
Our Goals
We have set three specific goals, and are exploring how best to achieve them.
1. Goal One is the election of a Unity Ticket for President and Vice-President of the United States in 2008 – headed by a woman and/or man from each major party or by an independent who presents a Unity Team from both parties.
2. Goal Two is for the people themselves to pick that Unity Ticket in the first half of 2008 – via a virtual and secure online convention in which all American voters will be qualified to vote.
3. Goal Three, our minimum goal, is to effect major change and reform in the 2008 national elections by influencing the major parties to adopt the core features of our national agenda. With a group of voters who comprise at least 20% of the national electorate, we feel confident that our voters will decide the 2008 election.
I’m not sure what I make of this. I’m not even sure I know why people vote for whom they vote, much less that they vote for the middle. It is odd, as the author points out, that the guys who invented partisan TV campaign ads are rueing their work, and hope to provide the corrective. Can they?
I’m not even sure there is too much partisanship. The way it is used usually, as a perjorative, seems to mean “argumentative; not nice.” Why is it wrong to be partisan? I admire the partisans of WW II. A partisan is a member of a party who fights for what the party is about. A lot of the fighting, it seems to me is, appropriately, over ideas. What kind of country do we want to live in? What kind of people are we?
When some people believe attacking other countries is OK, and others think it is a crime, what sense does voting for the middle have? When some folks think they have earned their 40 million dollar bonuses and that paying house cleaners $9 an hour is outrageous what does voting for the middle mean?
It is certainly true that campaigners all over the spectrum of belief have turned to vicious, ad-hominum attacks. [It is not, by the way, equally spread over that spectrum. The mean is not in the middle.] To the degree we make up our minds about our representatives through logical argument and thoughtful reflection we have been pushed away from that by the demagogues of emotion. How do we create zones where fear and manipulation isn’t the principle power? Will internet campaigning and nominating help? I’m not so sure.
What I want is smart, committed, energetic people trying to convince Americans to support ideas and programs of equality, fairness, non-aggression. That’s the middle for me and I don’t see how Unity08 gets there.
Update: Eric Alterman: What constitutes the political center and who defines its location?
What do you think?