Americans Elect: Can an Internet-Powered 3rd Party Transform 2012?

[Renew Deal]

Once again, it's third-party season in America. Every four years right around this phase of the electoral calendar, we often hear chatter about public dissatisfaction with Washington and various notables start making noises about some kind of independent candidacy or new party bid. In the fall of 1991, billionaire Ross Perot's name surfaced. In the fall of 1995, it was Colin Powell, the former general. In 1999, everyone from then-Republican Senator Robert Smith to Ralph Nader to Patrick Buchanan, Donald Trump, and Cybil Shepherd let float their names. After 2000 and the Nader nadir, presidential third-party fever abated somewhat and the irregular energies of grassroots activists flowed into new intra-party formations like the netroots on the Democratic side and, later, the rightroots and Tea Party on the Republican side. But again in 2007-08, there was that buzz for Mike Bloomberg, who at least briefly toyed with an independent bid for the White House, generating reams of adoring prose.
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The Internet for President?
And this time there's an intriguing twist. Instead of a charismatic candidate leading the charge to pull out the tubes and cut the IVs keeping the Republican and Democratic parties alive, the Internet is meant to be the vehicle of change. Since last year, Americans Elect, a non-profit 501c4 organization led by investor and activist Peter Ackerman, has been quietly laying the foundation for a 2012 Internet-based political convention to pick a "centrist" ticket that will, if all goes to plan, get on all fifty state ballots and compete in a serious way with Barack Obama and whomever the GOP nominates next year. Funded by Ackerman and a secretive group of backers that is reported to have pledged or loaned the group $20 million, AE is already spending millions on paid petition gatherers in several states, including California where it is about to start handing in more than a million-and-a-half signatures. The organizing group has also been hard at work on a sophisticated website and complicated strategy to enable millions of people to plug in and conduct a "virtual primary" in mid-2012 designed to attract fresh faces to the presidential campaign. In addition, by the end of the summer it plans to have volunteers working in every state senate district in the country (there are more than 2,000) and on 100 college campuses signing up "delegates" to its online convention.

In theory, any American citizen can sign up via the Americans Elect website to become a party delegate, though you do have to agree to abide by the group's bylaws. AE will then verify you by checking your name against the existing voter rolls. Delegates will then have the opportunity to vote online for the party's nominees and to also help shape the issues those nominees have to address. If a potential candidate comes from one of the major parties, they will be required to pick someone from outside that party as their running mate. The idea, as columnist Thomas Friedman--himself an increasingly vocal supporter of centrist third-partyism in recent years--put it in a column yesterday that was designed to propel the group into the spotlight, is to "challenge both parties from the middle with the best ideas on how to deal with the debt, education and jobs." He adds, with words that could be prophetic:

What Amazon.com did to books, what the blogosphere did to newspapers, what the iPod did to music, what drugstore.com did to pharmacies, Americans Elect plans to do to the two-party duopoly that has dominated American political life — remove the barriers to real competition, flatten the incumbents and let the people in.
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http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/americans-elect-can-internet-powered-3rd-party-transform-2012

[Dawson Leery]

1. This is another "third way" front.

"third way" = cutting the social safety net and lower taxes on the wealthy.

I am not buying this nonsense. In 2008, their predecessor "Unity 08'" wanted Mike (don't regulate Wall Street and keep the capital gains tax low) Bloomberg as their nominee.

[brooklynite]

2. A simple answer: no

I believe someone proposed this sort of gimmick in 2008, without any success. The internet approach still bypasses the millions of low-information voters who don't spend their time on political discussion boards, and doesn't address the unpleasantness of getting the prospective candidate on the ballot with actual petition signatures and election law lawyers to deal with.

[Renew Deal]

3. I don't think the internet approach bypasses anything.

It would still be up to the AE stakeholders to get their candidate on the ballot legally.

[ixion]

4. I like anything that tears down the walls of our ONE PARTY system.

And would be happy to bid goodbye to the corrupt duopoly.

[damntexdem]

5. "Centrist"? Center of what? Today, it woiuld be center of the right wing.

We don't need another center of the right wing -- for that, we have a major part of the Democratic Party.

[sudopod]

6. IT'S A TRAP nt

[OHdem10]

7. May I respectfully suggest that it is not a President that we need.

rather it is Congress.

The Senate has become a group people who thinks their
self-importance is the prime interest. One Person
can put a hold on a bill and create a log jame, likewise
they can interfere with nominees being confirmed.

My Point is our very own Party the Congress cannot
ever agree and move something forware. They had the
opportunity to end the Bush Tax Cuts. uhm--- what
a mess of sausage making they did with the Health
Care Bill and Democrats ended up passing a Republican
Health Bill.

If the Media focused on the Republican Congress this
would probably do more good than some group just trying
to run a different President. Stop caving to the Republicans
as they do now.

This crisis was created by Tea Party tying Spending Cuts
to the Debt Ceiling. Never done before. As long as
the Tea Party is permitted to take Hostages, Jesus Christ
could be President and it would not matter.

[LWolf]

8. How can a "centrist" ticket compete with Obama? nt

[Pab Sungenis]

9. It can compete because

the Republicans and the media have moved the center even further to the right. So Obama, who would have been a conservative Democrat 30 years ago is now seen as a liberal.

So their "centrist" will be somewhere around where Newt Gingrich is, and will seem "centrist" compared to Republican nominee Michelle Bachmann.

[LWolf]

10. I get that.

"Seen as" a liberal isn't liberal, though, is it?

In the age of spin and the right to treat opinions as fact, Obama can be spun as "liberal" and too many even believe it.

[swilton]

11. I'm not a fan of anythiing Thomas Friedman does

and it would give third parties a bad name to even me, a fan of third parties.

Friedman, author of the LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE and also, the WORLD IS FLAT goes to the world's most exciting places using made up words and sound bites to extol the virtues of globalized capitalism without looking at this capitalism's toll on its most vulnerable - increasing conflict and poverty. I have read his critics (staunch critic is Norman Solomon) claim that his inability to look at the disasters created by this globalizing world which is dependent on technology and the internet may be related to the fact that he only runs in elite circles a consequence of his marriage to his wealthy wife.

[AEEHINRRTTUW]

12. Tom Friedman is a fool

You should pay no attention to such men.