College students organize for a bipartisan ticket, hoping to bridge bipolar ambitions.
By Ryan Werder, University of Michigan
Tuesday August 8, 2006
Is America ready for an end to the Republican Reign in Washington? Probably. Is America ready, though, to give control to someone other than the Democratic opposition? Probably not, but Unity08 – a new political organization dedicated to putting up a third-party bipartisan presidential ticket in 2008 – thinks there are at least twenty million voters out there who are.
Though it sounds as likely as a one word answer from John Kerry, it’s true: One Democrat and one Republican campaigning together for the Presidency. Unity08 will even have its own primary and convention online. They believe the “wheels have come off our political system” and that “the current system is broken and [they] owe it to [their] children to fix it.”
Fighting as a third-party will be difficult. When Ralph Nader was running in 2000, Hendrik Hertzberg, the great liberal commentator, wrote that “no third party based on ideas can win the Presidency, because no set of ideas that is too weak to capture half the country can be strong enough to capture all of it.”
This opinion, hard to disregard in a winner-takes-all system in which there are seldom more than two parties, doesn’t seem to phase the college students who constitute a primary pillar of Unity08’s activists. The Unity website states that they have a presence on over 100 campuses and that thirteen out of thirty-one members on their founders’ council are in college.
Lindsay Ullman, a junior at Yale and co-President of the first all-student think tank, The Roosevelt Institute, is working at Unity08 this summer coordinating and conducting outreach to students across the country. Discussing issues like health care, education, and national debt, she says that the “generation in charge hasn’t been able to handle [them]… we have a system that can’t deal with and can’t debate them, and our generation will be the one to inherit the problem.”
Right now Unity08 does not have a ticket, and will not until they hold their online nominating convention. Ullman says, “Unity is an agenda and not a platform. We’re leaving room for candidates to step forward.” All one has to do to run is announce (and be constitutionally eligible, of course).
The agenda Unity08 has set leaves room for those on the left to be concerned. They’ve divided America’s problems into two broad categories: Crucial and Important. Crucial issues includes topics they say Congress can’t quite agree upon how to tackle (i.e. terrorism, the national debt, global climate change, education, health care, India vs. Pakistan, corruption, etc.), and “Important” issues which appear to be subjects upon which America is ideologically polarized (i.e. gun control, gay marriage, and abortion).
Not everyone sees the reason that a third party is needed to prioritize the “crucial issues.” Matthew Yglesias, a Staff Writer for the American Prospect, wrote that the issues above “Crucial” issues are similar to those of a certain other political party: “just like, you know, the Democratic Party.”
Anyway, one has to wonder how a Unity position will find the common ground on issues such as health care (universal… but only to those who can afford it). Or climate change (it’s not really happening… but here’s a fan and stilts for your house just in case). Or education (more money to inner-city public schools… as long as they’re not full of children we’ve already left behind.) Indeed, it seems that Unity08 has refused to consider the possibility that governmental inaction on issues like climate change and the uninsured isn’t because the parties can’t agree on a solution but because the current administration refuses to admit that there is a problem, or that it’s the government’s responsibility to solve it.
And what will happen with the “Important issues”? All the gays out of the country, but only to countries which give them equal rights and subsidized weddings!? Maybe on some issues common ground does not exist.
On so many of these “Crucial issues” it’s difficult to say how a “unified” position would be preferable to a win from either side. Perhaps the moderates would be happy, but is a compromise solution really always the best? A perfect example is the recent failed bill where the raise in the minimum wage came with the sticky little burrs of slashed estate taxes and decimated pensions. Sacrificing progressive values (minimum wage) or accepting a bad policy is not a good recommendation for bi-partisanship. Hopefully, Unity08 would be more willing to work towards compromise rather than mutual appeasement, but the potential for confusing the two ideas is not one to shrug off quickly. Perhaps a ticket composed of two Democrats or two Republicans (DisUnity08?) would say this kind of poison pill-stuffed legislation is even more evidence of why one side needs to just win – and win big.
Ullman, though, says that the recent partisan modus operandi has been to “turn out the base, turn out the base, turn out the base.” The consequence of which is only “ tuning out the rest of the country.” Unity08 introduces a new idea into America’s chaotic political mind: civility. That idea is a progressive one. They hope it will begin to calm the increasingly snarling animosity that keeps the United States mired in “values weeks” within Congress and “Justice Sundays” in mega-churches.
Unity08 is not alone in their desire to get people moving past Democratic or Republican talking points. Websites such as Beyond Partisan, which is run entirely by young activists, are also encouraging non-partisan, balanced debate.Advocating this kind of civil discourse (in both senses of the phrase) may very well be the only major impact which Unity08 may have in the coming years – but they’re OK with that. “We’re just looking to bring about the ability for leaders to come up with solutions,” Ullman said.
And where do we college students come in? “Ground work,” says Ullman. “Young people get activism. It’s part of collegiate nature.” Asked if she knew where most of the students came from, she replied that the volunteers are from both sides of the aisle and across a range of the ideological spectrum. What’s bringing them together is fatigue from dirty politics as well as a hope that they can change the atmosphere with some political shock therapy.
In regards to whether she has any kind of goal for how many college students she was hoping to attract to their ticket, Ullman laughed. “Millions?…I don’t know. We’re just going one step at a time.”
Step-by-step it is then, but with over 100 campuses being involved, the footsteps seem to have the potential to become louder. Students are being recruited and often volunteer themselves for Unity08’s cause. Ullman states that they aren’t targeting any specific groups. Many people just visit the website or hear from friends of friends of friends.
As we see Congress coming closer and closer to the glorious tradition of caning each other again it’s easy to close our eyes and wish that the two parties would stop yelling for a moment and shut up so others could start talking. It’s entirely possible that Unity08 and their collegiate founders and volunteers are the vehicle to that end. Or perhaps a solid win for more progressive candidates is the answer instead. One way or the other, the choice comes down to this: Victory or Unity?
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Comments
I think this is an idea that had to develop sooner or later. myself was becoming distressed by the increasingly important party politics that is pervading our governmental procedures. I know that when Hamilton and Madison wrote the Federalist Papers, they spoke of factions and that they were undesirable because they command the government without the common interest of the people in mind. I feel that faction is in power now, in the way that votes occur almost entirely on party lines, without individual assessment. While I do not know how successful bringing two idealogically different candidates will be, the statement it makes may present a wake-up call to politicians.
— Corey Ponder - Aug 11, 03:33 AM - #I feel that as a long term project, this is what needs to be done. But what about the fact that a unity ticket will take alot of democratic votes and could possibly lead to another F*&^ republican president?
— Josh Kappel - Aug 11, 11:55 AM - #To take the government from the neocons, liberals must stick together even if we don’t agree on every detail. Republicans already practice this strategy. Right now we are fighting for the soul of our country. It is not a good time to introduce a third party that will merely take votes from the Democrats. Instead, work to end election fraud. If our votes don’t count, we can’t accomplish anything. When the Democrats hold the power, make changes in the system so that a third party could actually have a voice.
— Sue Addisons - Aug 14, 04:17 PM - #