Hankster Choice of the Week: Cathy Stewart's Politics for the People with Jackie Salit and Mickey Edwards

This week The Hankster will feature Politics for the People, a monthly briefing and forum where independent political activists in New York City dialogue with each other and engage city, state and national elected and non-elected leaders on events of the day concerning independent politics.

Cathy L. Stewart, chief organizer of the NYC Organizations of the New York Independence Party, the founder and creator of the P4P Series, has been a mover and shaker in independent politics since the 1980s. One of the most popular programs offered by the NYCIP, Politics for the People is designed to give an inside look at politics and history from an independent’s point of view.  The class uses a variety of formats and explores a wide range of topics.  Whether featuring a guest speaker or a panel discussion, every class includes an in-depth Q & A session with audience members.

The Hankster is pleased to bring you the latest P4P session in several segments throughout the week.

Please tune in as Stewart brings to the stage Mickey Edwards, former Congressman from Oklahoma City and author of the upcoming book based on his provocative Atlantic article How to Turn Republicans and Democrats in to Americans, and Jackie Salit, the outspoken independent strategist and long-time organizer of the independent movement, author of a soon-to-be-published book Independents Rising.

Jackie and Mickey speak with New York City Independence Party members, activists, and others --  indeed a national audience of concerned Americans, as covered by C-Span, in an important dialogue  about our democracy and our democratic -- but highly partisan-centric -- process.

To begin the series, I will start at the end, with a question by my colleague and friend Dr. Jessie Fields, a medical doctor doctor with a long-time practice in Harlem and in the under-served communities of New York, and a brilliant community organizer. She speaks now about a country in crisis: our country, a nation, a culture, not being able to talk about real issues because of the partisanship of our politics. 


     

Politics for the People

Extra! Extra! 2016 Presidential Breaking News!

Apparently we are so bored with the 2012 Presidential election, the media is now pushing the 2016 election! Wow, the 24 hour news cycle + 5 year presidential campaign cycle = sorry, I gotta go to work now...

Independent News of the Day, April 26

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Book review: Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit (Ken Bingenheimer, National Common Ground Examiner) Buchanan was also warned that, "if you attempt to turn this party into a right-wing party, we will destroy your campaign." He did and they did.

NYC CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

• Money Is Corrupting Our Elections -- It Can Be Stopped (Ed Koch, Huffington Post) The committee should know that while it would be very helpful to have limits on campaign contributions and expenditures in New York State and elsewhere, as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in this area of election spending limitations, a program of limitations cannot be imposed on anyone. Those covered and bound by any such laws must voluntarily agree to be bound.

CA TOP TWO

• Brad Breithaupt: Independent voters won't be on the sidelines in this primary (By Brad Breithaupt, Marin Independent Journal) VOTERS WHO decline to join any of the political parties have mostly been bystanders in picking party nominees for state and federal offices. But this year, thanks to reforms passed by voters in 2010, they're important players in selecting the candidates who will be on the ballot in November.
• 'No party preference' is new political flavor in California (By Torey Van Oot, Sac Bee) Congressional candidate Linda Parks isn't one for conventional choices. As she tells voters in a recent television ad, her favorite ice cream flavor is not chocolate or vanilla, but the nuts-and-marshmallow-loaded Rocky Road. And her chosen party preference on the June 5 ballot? "None."

IL ELECTION LAW

• Our View: Illinois, where political independents go to die (PEORIA Journal Star) House Bill 2009 quietly became law on March 30, preventing anyone who votes in a partisan primary from running for public office as an independent in the following general election (or from running under a traditional party's banner if different than the ballot pulled in the primary). Even though passage of the bill and the governor's signature came after the March 20 primary, the law is being retroactively enforced so that it impacts this year's general election.

AZ REDISTRICTING

• Supreme Court shrugs off logic - Justices' reinstatement of map-panel head was a transparent arrogation of power (by Robert Robb, The Republic) Instead, the decision is disturbing because of the arrogation of power by the court and the slippery reasoning used to justify it.

NYC MAYORAL 2013

• A controlled disagreement between Christine Quinn and Michael Bloomberg (By Azi Paybarah, Capital New York) City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has taken pains to show that she acts independently of her ally, Michael Bloomberg. But sometimes Bloomberg says things that convey the opposite impression.
• NYDN Poll: Ray Kelly For Mayor? (BY Celeste Katz, NY Daily News/ Daily Politics) “He could be a contender,” said pollster Doug Schoen, who surveyed 600 city voters for The News. “He clearly is the last, best hope of the Republican Party at this point.”
• Ray Kelly for mayor? Nonsense (by Greg David, Crain's New York) The Kelly obsession keeps returning because there is a need for an alternative to the obvious Democrat choices. But if Mr. Kelly ever says yes, it will be quickly apparent that the emperor has no clothes. And then what will the instigators of this idea do?
• Scott Stringer Goes After Stop-and-Frisk, Does Not Criticize Ray Kelly In The Process (By Sam Levin, Village Voice/Runnin Scared) At the same time, though, it seems that Stringer tries to avoid using confrontational language when referring to Kelly, and today, he repeatedly found opportunities to praise the police commissioner and the NYPD's efforts at reducing crime.

LAST WORD(S)
NOTE: I usually reserve "Last Word" for the punditocracy of the left, however, I couldn't resist this Michael Goodwin piece in Fox News…

• Don't be fooled by third party scenarios as 2012 presidential race heats up (By Michael Goodwin, New York Post, in Fox News) They’re political locusts, noisy and bothersome as they emerge like clockwork from their hidey holes. We’re talking “third partiers,” and they find presidential elections irresistible, so brace yourself, America. You are about to be swarmed by those much holier than thou.
• Independent Voter or Independent Poser? Take the Test (Howard Steven Friedman, Statistician/Economist for International Organization, Columbia University, Huffington Post) Americans take pride in being individualistic. We often look down on the herd mentality of others, yet rarely identify it in ourselves. As with many things in life, when it comes to being an independent voter, actions speak much louder than words. If your actions show that you are a party loyalist, then embrace it. If your actions show that you are an independent voter, then embrace it.

Book review: Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit

Ken Bingenheimer

National Common Ground Examiner

 

Partisan gridlock has pushed public approval of Congress's performance into single-digit territory, and the single largest--and growing--political group in the country is the non-affiliated voters. Yet in much of the country, this massive group is disenfranchised, denied the ability to exert any influence in primary elections and forced to choose between increasingly partisan party nominees in the general election.

George Washington's views on political parties are powerfully relevant today. He said, in his Farewell Address, that political parties can "become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government."

Washington's fears have been realized, and that fact has spawned the Tea Party and Occupy movements and the proliferation of non-affiliated voters. The American people want that power back. 
 

In her book, Independents Rising, Jacqueline Salit chronicles the growth and maturation of the independent movement over the last quarter century, and exposes the fallacy of viewing independents as just Democrats or Republicans who don't want to actually be party members, but who can nonetheless be counted on to vote for the party's nominee.

Who are independents?
"Who are these independents? A profusion of polling, focus groups, and profiles are suddenly dedicated to answering that very question. This is where the literal reading comes in handy. As someone involved in organizing independents for 30 years, I would advise putting all of the 'data' to one side. Listen to the simplest, the most obvious statement independents are making. No interpretation, polling, or focus group is needed. They are Americans who don't want to align with any political party."

Salit also refutes the misconception that independents are primarily moderates or centrists. She quotes a Pew Research Center study that found that "independents are not moderates but, instead, span the spectrum and combine social and economic views in unorthodox ways."

Says Salit, "they are a social engine for political reform that goes beyond parties, partisanship, and traditional ideology. In this respect, independents are, by their choice, radicals--nonideological radicals, but radicals just the same."

Radicals, by definition, want to change the system. And as she discusses the history of the independent movement, Salit spotlights some of these unorthodox alignments. She tells of how the independent movement, seeking political reform, partnered with Ross Perot when he ran his Reform Party presidential campaigns. And of how then, despite the deep philosophical differences some felt on social issues, movement organizations backed Pat Buchanan's bid in 2000.

"We instructed Buchanan that social issues (right or left) were not a part of the Reform Party platform and that any effort to introduce them would be a violation of what the party stood for. Buchanan said he had no problem with that."

Buchanan was also warned that, "if you attempt to turn this party into a right-wing party, we will destroy your campaign." He did and they did.

Not third-party, anti-party
It was after the 2000 election that the independent movement moved away from the idea of creating a third party to become anti-party. Salit, who managed Michael Bloomberg's three New York mayoral campaigns, describes the efforts to break the city out of its partisan model with party primaries and nominees, to become a non-partisan, open election as is the predominant system in most of the country's major cities.

The effort met powerful opposition from all the political parties, large and small, because, "control of nominations is the bread and butter of party life." Bloomberg supported the move, saying, "What the electoral process should be about is letting everybody have an equal say. . . . You've got to get rid of the partisan politics and party bosses who really limit the public's choice."

Also included is California's successful move to a Top Two system where everyone gets to vote and the top two vote-getters in the non-partisan primary go to a run-off in the general election, even if they are both of the same party. Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is quoted after that success saying, "The voters made a clear and decisive statement that the way to fix broken government is to expand democracy, contain the control exercised by political parties, and give greater power to the people."

Salit touches on the efforts of groups such as No Labels and Americans Elect, but characterizes their objectives are being more aimed at making the system work again, whereas she argues that the political party system has out-lived its usefulness and needs to be replaced by a post-partisan system that allows full participation of all citizens at all levels.

"Restoring a 'center' rests on the supposition that the existing institutions and power relations can and should be restored. Independents, in contrast, are searching for ways to develop the political system in accord with changing times. . . . Independents, organized without being a third party, are battling for structural reforms that loosen the grip of parties on government and politics."

Independents decide elections
Salit offers statistics to demonstrate that it was independents, in states where they are allowed to vote in primaries, who gave the major party nominations to Barack Obama and John McCain, and who then broke predominantly for Obama in the general election, seeking to install a post-partisan president.

When Obama failed or was unable to deliver that post-partisanship, it was then the independents who enabled the Republicans to take control of the House of Representatives in 2010. And independents are expected to cast the deciding votes this year as well.

Describing independents as a "becoming-organized force for a genuinely postpartisan politicial system," Salit argues that, "the political power of independents rests in being outsiders, in not being attached to any party, major or minor. This movement-in-the-making changes the political environment by changing the rules of the game."

But that power to decide elections has not yet been translated into representation.

"Some might say that independents, the 40 percent of voters not fully integrated into the political system, are simply the next group of Americans to be unfairly excluded. In other words, the demand for equality for independents should be seen as a classic civil rights issue."

With more and more voters abandoning the political parties, decades of political organizing by independents may well be bringing us to the cusp of a new era in politics. But it won't be quick or easy, as the parties rightly see this struggle as one that is, for them, a matter of life and death. If the American people want their power back, it is up to them to take it. It surely won't be given freely.

Jobs and the Environment: Caroline Lucas on Gideon's Tragedy

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP has blasted as "economically illiterate" Chancellor George Osborne's claims that tackling global warming and environmental degradation would damage the economy. On the day that Britain slipped back into official recession after two years of Con Dem slash-n-burn austerity economics, she talked about how Green Councillors have led the way in job creation.

Nationally, the green economy contributes almost 7% of GDP with potential for much more to get the economy moving and people in jobs, sustainably and cleanly.

You can hear Caroline Lucas' full interview, originally broadcast this morning at the ungodly hour of 6.50 am on Radio 4 to allow the BBC to claim it provides balanced broadcasting, by following this link HERE. 

Caroline Lucas MP (right) with Green councillors on a recent visit to Kirkburton in Kirklees; more on  Cllr Andrew Cooper's blog, "Greening Kirklees" HERE.

A Little Reminder Ahead of Elections Day

Just before the 2010 General Election, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg took part in one of the most audaciously cynical election broadcasts in history - No More Broken Policies. (Embedding has been "disabled by request", I wonder why. But you can see it by following this link HERE.)

It is a bit like some of these emails that offer to compensate you if you've been scammed by spam email - if only you'll send your bank details. Nick offers to mend politics with no more broken promises.

Well, the rest is history as we live under the most rightwing Government in modern British political history.

As for Nick's promises in the broadcast...

Tuition fees abolished? No - trebled. A promise broken!
Making votes count equally? No, sold down the river with a dreadful referendum on AV, a non-proportional system. A promise broken!
Fairstart for children? Surestart centres closing. A promise broken!
Break up the banks and make them pay for the damage they caused? No; broken up yes; but the profitable bits sold off at a loss to the taxpayer. A promise broken!
New Green infrastructure? Not with the gutting of the Green Deal. A promise broken!
Sustainable green energy? The feed-in tariff slashed, community renewable subsidies ended and nuclear power the choice for "clean" energy. Er, no... A promise broken!
Fair taxes? Nope - a marginal increase in the tax allowance for everyone (including billionaires) with priority given to cutting income tax by a tenth for people earning at the top rate. With VAT increased, the poor pay proportionately more in tax; the rich even less. Broked again!
A fairer Britain? Wealth gap widening; welfare slashed; unemployment up with only austerity as a response...

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem President, claimed on Question Time last week that of course the Lib Dems are in a Coalition so can't have got everything their own way. If they hadn't gone into coalition, he claimed, the Tories would be in untramelled control. Except that any look at the maths in the Commons shows that the Tories can't do anything without Lib Dem votes. And at the same time, the Lib Dems claims to have implemented most of their election promises...errr??

Well, it doesn't really matter that much. They have sunk to 8% in a number of polls, and that was before we were reminded of their expenditure of £2.4 million of stolen money obtained from the fugitive criminal Michael Brown, finally caught and brought home for trial (and yes he got a dinner or three with then Leader Charles Kennedy). If there was an election tomorrow, UK Polling Report reckons they would be down to just 7 MPs.

Nice music though... I think from a film about zombies...