There’s a new third party that is attempting to form, with its goal to give a voice to all views – not just moderates, but conservative and liberals, too, who feel disenfranchised from the Republican and Democratic parties. I think forming a third party is absolutely fine, but there seem to be big problems with it.
On the surface, “We welcome all views,” sounds great. Except I’m not sure if those with a conservative view want to push things that are part of a liberal agenda – and I don’t think liberals want to support any parts of a conservative agenda that are abhorrent to them. Further, though today’s GOP is pretty strictly far-right today, the Democratic Party already does have very liberal Democrats from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to moderate Democrats like Maggie Hassan and Chris Coons (and a great many others, especially in the House) and conservative Democrats like Joe Manchin and Jon Tester. So, if you generally support Democratic Party agenda, it’s hard to not find a place in the party. Given that the Democratic Party leans to the left, I’d think that most dissatisfaction in the party is from it not being progressive enough. Would those people want to join a party that aligns them with unhappy Republicans?? Some, perhaps, but enough for a viable, serious third party?? Which leads into another big problem. The name of this third party is the Forward Party. And I think that is a truly terrible name. As I mentioned, its mission is to span all views for the disenfranchised. But -- First of all, I think most people who are unhappy with their troubled party today are the disenfranchised moderate Republicans, deeply uncomfortable with the fascist direction of the GOP. We’ve heard and read about a great many former Republicans who now have left the GOP and say they are independents. Or even some say Democrats, because they want to affiliate with a party that can correct the course. There are certainly some Democrats who feel the party is too liberal for them, but there’s been no serious movement of them leaving the party on a scale of Republicans. And second, the name “Forward Party” sounds progressive. It doesn’t seem to cry out to Republicans, “Come join us!” It actually seems almost prohibitive to conservatives, even moderate ones. Further, it sounds like it's going after liberals more than Republicans. It’s not (supposedly), but that’s what its name says. Which is troubling if the name confuses some and draws people from the left, wanting to be even more progressive. The person who has been talking about this the most on TV has been former Republican congressman David Jolly, who left the GOP several years ago and has been a very good analyst on MSNBC. In his appearances, he has been aggressively insisting that has no "official role" in the Forward Party -- with which, he notes, one of his organizations has merged. The thing is, that’s significantly underplaying reality. While a few groups have merged, it’s three major ones in particular that form the foundations – and Jolly’s Serve America Movement is one of them More to the point, while insisting that he has no “official role,” he comes across like a spokesman for the party explaining bullet points off their Talking Points Agenda. And to be clear, that's fine, no problem with that – but not if remains an official MSNBC analyst. It’s not surprising that another of the groups forming the core triumvirate is the Renew America Movement founded by former Republicans such as former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, Trump’s short-lived Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, former Trump advisor Miles Taylor, who wrote the famous “We’re the advisors protecting you from Trump” article as “Anonymous” and George Conway (who despite his virulent hatred of Trump is associated with the deeply conservative Federalist Society). Nor is it surprising that another founder of Forward former New Jersey Republican governor Christine Todd Whitman. But what stands out, is that another of the founding groups is one headed by Andrew Yang. Andrew Yank ran for the Democratic nomination to be the leader of the party as it presidential candidate, and lost. He then ran for mayor of New York City in Democrat primary, and again lost. And so, now, after losing twice – for major positions he had absolutely no experience for – he quits the Democratic Party to become a founder of the new third party, Forward. In fairness, that pretty much capsulizes how I’ve always seen Andrew Yang. He seems to be smart and talented in his fields, and even with good intentions, but largely clueless how governing works and pretty much a self-promoter. So, if a third party wants to come along and build solid, thoughtful support – good for them. I think it’s a tough hurdle in the United States, but there have been somewhat-strong third parties. Indeed, the Republican Party didn’t even come into existence for 100 years. But…the Forward Party seems to have added some of its own hurdles to an otherwise reasonable effort.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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