Lot’s of blame, no room for new ideas. Why? The spirit of party gone mad. Solution? Structural political reform. See video of CBS New York Q&A on the debt crisis between journalists John Avlon and Margaret Hoover, and New York City independent activists. Dr. Jessie Fields (she asks the last question) tells us ‘I’m not an expert on the economy, I’m a 25 year physician and I recognize disease when it’s systemic and uncontrolled, and the two parties are strangling our democracy. We as a nation need to turn our attention to reforming the political process. As independents we support comprehensive nonpartisan restructuring of the political process; we think that’s at the heart of this crisis. What are your thoughts, ideas, about solutions?’
Wednesday, July 27th at 8:15 am/ET, catch independentvoting.org’s Jackie Salit on “Fox and Friends.”
Salit, a twenty-year veteran of the independent movement, is president of IndependentVoting.org and launched The Neo-Independent magazine in the Spring of 2004. A prominent leader in the fight for open primaries, she conducts regular national conference calls with over 150 grassroots independent leaders from around the country. An independent political strategist and journalist, she managed Michael Bloomberg’s independent campaigns for Mayor of New York City in 2001, 2005 and 2010, and has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. She produced the documentary “How the Independent Movement Went Left By Going Right” as well as the video “Can Independents Reform America?” Salit lives in New York City.
DEBT CRISIS QUIK ROUND-UP
Michael Bloomberg warns of D.C.’s ‘leadership deficit’ – ‘Our national leaders need to stop staring down the other side,’ said Michael Bloomberg. (By REID J. EPSTEIN, Politico)
Our stupid self-inflicted debt crisis (By John Avlon, CNN) But the blame for this stage of failure lies squarely on the party that unilaterally withdrew from the talks — and that’s the Republicans… Independents voted for Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections because they wanted checks and balances; they wanted to reduce deficit and debt spending. But they did not vote for dysfunctional government, and they certainly did not vote for default. The polls showing that independent voters say they will blame Republicans more than Democrats for a U.S. default reflects this disconnect.
Obama, Boehner: Speechs without solutions (By Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times) Obama zoned in on the Tea Party freshmen in Congress, though not by name. “I realize that a lot of the new members of Congress and I don’t see eye-to-eye on many issues. But we were each elected by some of the same Americans for some of the same reasons.” Obama’s message: The independent voters who sent Obama to the White House were also some of the people who voted for them. And they can be switch hitters again.
A ‘Unique Opportunity’ on the Debt Ceiling, Lost (By JACKIE CALMES, NY Times) And while Mr. Obama also seeks to appeal to independent voters who make the difference in presidential elections, many Democrats complain he is too willing to compromise, potentially disillusioning their party’s voters and muddying the case against Republicans for proposing much deeper entitlement program cuts. Mr. Boehner’s problem is that some otherwise persuadable Republicans worry less about the general election than party primaries, and fear they could draw a conservative rival by supporting a deal with Mr. Obama.
For more on the debt crisis, and more news for, by and about independent voters, see The Hankster
Provocateur/ pundit/ organizer Nancy Hanks is a long-time activist in the independent political movement who’s done it all: petitioning to put independent candidates on the ballot from New York to Texas and points east, west, north and south; fundraising for the independent think tank, the Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP), and its online counterpart, IndependentVoting.org; running as an independent for New York City Council from Queens, New York City’s most diverse borough; serving as the current Treasurer of the Queens County Committee of the Independence Party of New York (of the IP NYC Organizations); conducting research for the Neo-Independent, a magazine that addresses the concerns of independent voters.