[Marxism] Unity08 initiative

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Mr. Proyect: I'm a long time lurker on Marxmail who has written to 
you before on a few occasions.  I'm forwarding a link to an article in the 
Atlantic on this Unity08 initiative, which may wind up running Bloomberg 
for President. Of course they'd be equally happy with John McCain or Barak 
Obama.  I go on to speculate about what this means for the Greens and the 
Left in 08.  Feel free to repost it if you like.

Yours,
S. W.
NYC Green

-----------------------------------------------

The Atlantic is running an article on the Unity08 independent campaign for 
president, which concentrates on the veteran Democratic and Republican 
party consultants that are attempting to gin up a Ross Perot type 
insurgency. The initiative is a sign of the generally held perception in 
this country that something has gone seriously wrong with the political 
system.  The disfunctionality is commonly, and wrongly in my opinion, 
attributed to "partisanship" and "lobbying" as if the complete abandonment 
of principle would somehow negate political patronage and bribery.  Unity08 
seems to be founded on the perception that the two major parties connection 
to the mass of voters through broad constituencies of race class and income 
is now mainly historical. By appealing to voters directly as individuals, 
in an online primary, they hope to create a cheap alternative to the 
current $2 billion horse race.


The creators of Unity08 believe that the answer is to open the process to 
the Internet masses, causing a tectonic shift powerful enough to disrupt 
the two-party system. They have not, however, lost faith in that 
system?merely in its power to correct itself. "The two-party system has 
worked well for 200 years and can continue to do so," Bailey says, "but 
only when elections are fought over the middle. Our goal is to jolt the two 
parties into recognizing this, by drawing them into a fight over the middle 
rather than allowing them to keep maximizing the appeal to their bases at 
the extremes."

Bailey and his confederates envision their enterprise not as the 
establishment of a permanent third party but as a one-shot affair?a dose of 
medicine strong enough to bring the two parties to their senses. Only then, 
they believe, can things truly improve. In other words, they are attempting 
nothing less than to rescue American politics and put the country back on 
the right track.

[...]


One of the many things that differentiate Unity08 from earlier third-party 
movements is that its founders aren't putting forward their own candidate. 
What they have in mind might instead best be thought of as the "Field of 
Dreams" model: build a mechanism whereby qualified individuals of 
insufficient partisanship to win the Republican or Democratic nomination 
gain a legitimate shot at the White House, and trust that the best 
candidates will come. The beauty of the whole thing, Rafshoon explained one 
day over lunch in a Georgetown restaurant, is that it completely upends the 
way Americans currently choose their presidential nominees. "The 2004 
presidential election cost $2.2 billion, and the parties left choosing 
their candidates to a handful of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire!" he 
exclaimed. "If we do it over the Net and succeed?we think it'll cost less 
than $10 million to set up?then we'll have proved that you don't need $2.2 
billion to win the presidency, and we'll have thrown open the process to an 
online army of millions." As soon as frustrated citizens have that kind of 
power, the possibilities for electoral upheaval are practically limitless. 
"It's the perfect vehicle for voters to start a draft movement," Rafshoon said.


The full article is here: 
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200701/green-unity08

Don't be misled by the word "green" in the URL, that's the surname of the 
author.  There is no mention of existing parties other than the Democratic 
and Republican parties.  In fact there is no mention of political 
policy.  The organizers of Unity08 don't seem to much in the way of any 
policy principles either as Michael Bloomberg, John McCain, and Barak Obama 
are all mentioned as potential candidates.

They have one thing right: the current system is seriously broken. The 
hasn't been a real runoff in a political convention since 1952.  The whole 
primary campaign has been a mind-numbing coronation procession.  The 
centrist initiative could generate a lot of money as well as attract some 
of the Reform and uninvolved voters that supported Nader in 2000.

It might be theoretically possible to adapt this Internet primary model to 
a democratize the selection of a progressive unity candidate in 2008, by 
polling registered Greens,  However, the expense is probably prohibitive, 
the possibility of something going seriously wrong is great, and it would 
eliminate the highly personal campaign appeals that motivates 
activists.  With all the publicity and money that a non-partisan third 
party would generate, it may not be practical to run more than a token 
national campaign, more like Nader in 2004, than Nader in 2000.  The money 
and excitement generated by a viable centrist candidate would work to the 
detriment of any presidential campaign.

It should be possible to exploit the perception that "things are changing" 
generated by a Perot-style challenge by coordinating principled local 
Green/progressive campaigns.  The progressive Left has an opportunity to 
capture the constituent services and just as the major parties are 
abandoning them. In places like California, Maine, Illinois, or Vermont, 
where Greens or local Progressive parties have done well, capturing 
mayoralties, seats in the state legislature, or even in the House of 
Representatives, would not be out of the question.  Managing, or simply 
participating in local government offers the opportunity to experiment with 
new strategies in wage, immigration, job creation and social service 
campaigns.  Inevitably, some folks would drop off the wagon and this could 
amount to nothing more than a municipal socialism experiment. ,  but some 
political strongholds would give nonvoters at-large a new way to consider 
politics.  This might appear to be too long term and uncertain, but even if 
the two-party system is discredited, efforts like Unity08 show that the 
Establishment is capable of coming up with alternatives. Shouldn't we 
realistically prepare for the long-haul in independent politics, in 
addition to social struggle, if the county will ever move socially and 
politically to the Left?

--

www.marxmail.org


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