Last summer, there were plenty of centrists who expressed genuine excitement about a project called Americans Elect, which its backers perceived as a vehicle towards bipartisan governing. Thomas Friedman, last summer, devoted a column to singing Americans Elect's praises, saying its organizers are "really serious, and they have thought out this process well."
As it turns out, that wasn't quite right.
Americans Elect, the deep-pocketed nonprofit group that set out to nominate a centrist third-party presidential ticket, admitted early Tuesday that its ballyhooed online nominating process had failed.
The group had qualified for the general election ballot in 27 states, and had generated concern among Democrats and Republicans alike that it could wreak havoc on a close election between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
But just after a midnight deadline Monday, the group acknowledged that its complicated online nominating process had failed to generate sufficient interest to push any of the candidates who had declared an interest in its nomination over the threshold in its rules.
I never fully understood the appeal of this enterprise. Voters were supposed to gravitate towards Americans Elect out of a desire to see a presidential campaign committed to centrist, compromise-focused policymaking. Americans Elect did not, however, have a candidate. Or a platform. Or a policy agenda. Or even vague positions on any issue. It had money, a slot on 27 state ballots, and the admiration of some moderate-minded newspaper columnists, but nothing else.
So what, exactly, was the point? Apparently, the entity's organizers intended to hold an online convention, in which "the people" would nominate a ticket with two candidates: one from each party. What would be the value of this? No one ever got around to explaining that.
Real-world problems, however, kept getting in the way.
Credible candidates, for example, weren't interested. Americans Elect talked about bold, democratic principles, but it collected tens of millions of dollars in secret donations, then built a series of "anti-democratic measures" into Americans Elect's structure: "the power of a board to set aside (subject to a veto override from 'voters') the People's Choice in order to create a legitimately 'balanced, centrist' ticket, whatever that means."
When it came time for the convention, organizers found they were missing two rather important elements: candidates and voters.
And as of last night, the project appears to be a bust, which is heartening -- Americans Elect was an overly-secretive, well-financed gimmick, eager to play electoral mischief for reasons that were never clear.
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The ideology of "centrists" and "moderates" is partly to blame for the mess we find ourselves in today. Americans Elect is/was nothing but a vehicle for the super-rich and those billionaires not already bankrolling Mitt Romney (maybe 1 or 2?) to find another medium for their general disgust with the idea of any regulations or limitations on their ability to swindle the public and make lots and lots of money for themselves. Personal profits is not exactly a a compelling political platform. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Sort of the same with agnostics, according to famous non-theist's various literature anyway; allowing the evils of Christianity to go unabated. I know, OT but eerily similar..
nothing but a bunch of self-absorbed grifters. I'm glad it's obvious that they are a joke.
I think blogging is fun. I do not however think that voting on-line is such a great idea. You just can never, ever, even how hard you try, replace a conversation between 2 people face to face. I would pick talking to a person literally, then typing to a person illiterally any day of the week. A great idea though is to do away with titles such as Republican and Democrat or Independent and switch to the person's real name and beliefs. Role playing is fun but, not when it comes to picking a leader who is supposed to represent "We the people" The problem is the paralysis of ideas within our government brought upon by stereotypical labels. Who will be Brave enough to change things and shake things up a bit. Rules are made to be broken. We should vote on a person according to their accomplishments, ideas and courage to implement them. Don't knock it until you've tried it. Parties are supposed to be fun. The Republican party is boring and selfish they will not share their party favors. On the other hand, It's my party and I'll cry if I want to. You would cry too if it happened to you. I also agree with Alice on this one " I want to become a member of the Wild Party" not the Tea Party. At the Tea Party they often change hats, they eat their cups and they switch their chairs. Tea sure does something for the spirit though. They must belong to another Tea Party then, the one I had in mind....Party on!!!
If they had only nominated Joe Liebermann for president and vice president, they could have had a candidate from all major parties: Democrat, Repuknican, Likud, and Idiot.
There are plenty of good "ideas" out there- socialist, libertarian, conservative, progressive- but we don't vote for ideas, we vote for "people", warts and all.
(The glossy picture of the dinner on the box ain't much like the microwave mess inside!)
People sit there and wonder why Oklahoma is so GOP/Republican, when I’ve seen it myself how it has been companies there that insist that their workers vote Republican. It is has been seen in meetings that your boss will tell everyone to vote Republican if they want to have a good job yet. When you question them on that it is up to the people themselves to vote who they want and not under a bosses comments, the general comment is yea ok, but still you need to vote Republican. There is always that subtle and at times more direct comments under the threat of a person’s job to vote Republican and this comes under the direction of higher management.
While I would not put anything past certain companies, however, how would higher management [or anyone for that fact] know whether their employees voted D or R ? Other than having some type of system in place that displays the voter's name & who he/she voted for which is illegal anyhow, she/he is anonymous.
Darn it.
This nation needs more viable parties. The Republican Party is mostly about fighting Democrats, and the Democratic Party is increasingly mostly about fighting Republicans.
Okay, fine. Let's end the custom of belonging to only one party at a time. For one's Republican-fighting, one can be part of the Democratic Party, but for getting stuff done, one can belong to another party entirely.
Actually the reasons are clear - Americans Elect was a front group. It doesn't matter if it's a left or right front group, the point is that they didn't really have their act together, not many people (other than their donors) actually knew they existed and they're secretive. Good riddance to the further dumbing down of Americans.
We already have a centrist party in this country. They're called Democrats.
Touché!
The problem with this on-line political party is the fear that it's another astro-turf / Koch-like funded group looking to promote some unknown wing-nut for hidden political gain. Just too little is known about them to make me even want to consider any of their rumored candidates for a ballot.
When Jeb Bush's name came up, I deleted the link from my browser and hoped to Hell they just got lost in the wash of everything else.
I've held since the beginning that AE was focused on the wrong office and was attempting to do the wrong thing.
AE should have been focused on electing Congressmen not a President. The Presidency is an all or nothing thing. For one Party to win, the other must lose. For any third group to elect a President, they will need to persuade a significant number of people to abandon one Party. That's certain to not happen. (Reflect on how much the fear of losing to the other Party has convinced Republicans to go with Romney, perhaps the least acceptable candidate to the far right.)
Congress is different. While the rule of Americans elections strongly encourage a 2 Party race, independent candidates periodically manage to get elected. There are several now in Congress. One, a candidate for the open Maine Senate seat, is likely to be elected this year.
Had AE assembled a coalition around moderate, business-oriented (sane) Republicans, splitting them from the nutty, Tea Party types, they may have well be able to win multiple Congressional seats and perhaps even held the balance of power between the two parties. Sure, this outcome would hardly be nirvana to progressives but it sure would be better than some of the insanity we've seen in the last few years from the GOP.
further proof of the fact that, regardless what rich people think, there is no connection between the brain and the billfold.
where's the donated money?
AZSue nails it. Perhaps this wasn't such a bust after all - three is, after all, 10 mil or so sitting around for a handful of AE insiders to clean up.
Of course Rachel would be on about downing more choices for voters. Anything to not take away votes from her Pro-Gay Marriage President. She's in a "Partnership," you know. Conflict of interest much, Rachel?
Meanwhile, President 0 continues to murder American citizen 16-year-old boys just because their dads are suspected of terrorism. But the world is kept safe for thousands of penises and vaginas, so I guess Rachel is satisfied, anyway.
http://www.stpeteforpeace.org/obama.html
As the Supreme Leader of the Arizona Americans Elect Party, I should point out that whatever the people who created this "party" had in mind, they got enough signatures on petitions to create actual political parties in some states. At last count, there were about 150 voters in Arizona who, like myself, are registered members of the Americans Elect Party. We are recognized as one of the five current parties entitled to a ballot line this year (along with the Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Greens).
And thanks to a quirk in Arizona election law, a write-in candidate of a new party like Americans Elect can win the primary and be listed on the November ballot for federal, state or local office if she wins a plurality of the votes cast in the primary -- as little as one vote. (In 2010, I won the Green Party primary for Congress in my district with six write-in votes, and a challenge to my appearing on the general election ballot failed in federal court.)
One of our Americans Elect voters is running for the Corporation Commission, trying to get enough petition signatures to get on the ballot, and others may be running for other offices. I am encouraging anyone who wants to run for office in November to register with our new party and become a write-in candidate for the state legislature, Congress, Corporation Commission or other offices. Essentially we will be a collection of independents of various views with our own party.
http://azamericanselect.blogspot.com/
Americans Elect is a defective concept. They expected to attract a stellar politician to win millions of disaffected voters. Instead, they attracted political failures and unknowns who obtained a mere few thousand votes. Of course!
Stellar politicians today are either Republican or Democrat. A stellar politician would know that it is politically impossible to win the presidency as a third party candidate. The most a third party candidate could do would be to act as a spoiler, splitting the vote of his own party, Republican or Democrat, so the other party’s candidate would win. No stellar politician would want to be the cause of that “treachery” to his party compatriots.
If, by some miracle the AE candidate won, how could he/she ever accomplish anything as president? He would have no AE members in Congress to work with. Every member of Congress would be in the opposition party, with his former party members hating him the most. There would be increased gridlock as all of Congress would want the AE president to fail, proving the AE idea does not work.
AE should start at winning seats in state offices and in Congress, before aiming at the presidency. No athlete runs his first race at the Olympics. Why did the AE donors think they could start first at the highest political office?
Buddy Roemer is one of the few politicians seeking the AE nomination, but he failed to find sufficient supporters to qualify as a potential nominee. The only reason Buddy Roemer is seeking the nomination is that he has had a failed political career and no party wants him.
He was one of the worst governors in Louisiana history. He could not get along with people, put together a competent staff, or pass legislation. He did not work hard and had no ability to govern. Read this history of LA governors, pages 259-268:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Y-0-kmu4vk0C&pg=PA259&lpg=PA259&dq=%22Often+wrong,%22+Roemer&source=bl&ots=GXt38E_jVv&sig=poXJMn9QbCUESjDIP2-foOb3YLY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=n-xjT7CXDOORiQL8n_SiDw&ved=0CGMQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=%22Often%20wrong%2C%20but%20never%20in%20doubt%22%20Roemer&f=false
Even today, he is LA's most UNfavorite son. A recent PPP poll rated him the most unpopular presidential candidate, with a 2:1 unfavorable rating in his home state! http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/03/santorum-leads-by-14-in-louisiana.html#more
As a LA commentator quipped, in bayou style:
“Buddy Roemer, who has been out of politics for 19 years, couldn't win an election as a dogcatcher in Louisiana, much less the Presidency of the United States."
http://www.337post.com/yoyo/110309-roemer.html
I know Rachel has had Buddy on her show several times and is obviously impressed with him. So was I and many others. But, Rachel, he is not what he appears to be. Go to the web page given below, of Mr. Lessig, another Buddy supporter who has been wowed by his talk. See the four comments there by "Say Amen" and read the citations at the URLs given in those comments. It is worth your time and is a fascinating history. Those citations are by reliable historians and journalists and refer to the quotations from Buddy himself.
Those four Comments present a true story of a quite deviant personality.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/buddy-roemer-the-anti-spoiler/257101/
Nice concept, muffed execution.
A movement so effusively egalitarian shot itself in both feet with a machine gun.
- Paying back the millionaire seed money before the online primary even begins?
- Failing to acknowledge the spoiler effect and take countermeasures? (Recruit voters from both parties in amounts proportional to each state's membership)
- Assuming the degree of success they didn't meet with NO contingency plan?
It's not as though Buddy Roemer or Rocky Anderson aren't arguably better choices than Mitt Romney...
I love me some Barack Hussein Obama and alas, I am suspicious the REAL reason AE has been shut down is that every top candidate AE selected would take more votes from Romney than our highly competent commander in chief.