Bringing Independents to the Table
By Marcia Ford | Related entries in IndependentsAs an advocate of independent politics, I’m frequently asked some variation of this question: if independents become as powerful as the two major parties, won’t they become just as corrupt and power hungry? That question, of course, assumes that I’m itching for independents to be that powerful. Not so. Or at least, not yet; I’d be happy if we could just get a place at the table sometime before I die.
For me, one of the most hopeful movements in that direction is an effort known as transpartisanism. In the broader political sense, the term applies to cooperation among the major parties, minor parties, and independents. In a more specific sense, it refers to a movement that’s bringing together leaders from across the political spectrum to work toward solutions to particular problems, dialogue in order to understand each other’s perspective, or simply get to know each other.
A while back I spoke with two prominent facilitators of transpartisan events, Joseph McCormick and Michael Ostrolenk. What they’re doing shows real promise. Through invitation-only retreats, politicians, as well as leaders representing diverse groups such as the American Legion, Common Cause, the League of Woman Voters, AARP, and the American Gas Association, get together to talk — and more importantly, listen — to each other about the overarching principles that define America. In 2005, the Christian Coalition and MoveOn.org co-sponsored one such event. If that doesn’t give you hope for genuine political cooperation someday, I don’t know what will.
One result has been surprising (some would say bizarre) alliances between groups that were once adversaries — sometimes under the radar. It’s one thing for an ultra leftist to acquire newfound respect for a right-winger, but it’s another thing to expect partisan contributors to cheer on the relationship. ”We’re developing coalitions of coalitions that are beginning to cooperate in ways the red-blue establishment did not expect,” Joseph told me. “We have an opportunity to transform the system.”
Democracy in America, Reuniting America and Liberty Coalition are among the groups helping to break down the red-blue divide and bring independents and minor parties into the mix. I hope these transpartisan efforts succeed, because polarizing partisanship clearly doesn’t work — and bipartisanship is not enough.
Marcia Ford is the author of We the Purple: Faith, Politics and the Independent Voter.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 and is filed under Independents. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:52 am
Now that’s the most rational commentary I’ve seen ANYWHERE during this entire embarrassment called a campaign. The so-called Centrists were sounding that way with the promise of a “post-partisan era” and “common ground.” But with Bloomberg pulling back, and Nunn going to Obama, the leadership fell apart. Except for Alan Stewart Carl on this blog, and now you, I had lost all hope that the potential sanity had lost out to the bickering pettiness of the daily poll-gazing and sound byte smashing polarization that so many view as “healthy political debate??!!?!?” Even Centerfield has succumbed. I’ll be looking to you and those you reference for some more visible substance and real leadership. Thank you!
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
Nice post to remind us that working together requires some skills and training.
As for the legislatures our challenge is getting people elected who want to work together. The current system of financing campaigns and determining districts tends to favor inflexible partisanship and special interests.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
What people in the center miss in the Democratic campaign is that if we look back George Bush Sr. entered the executive branch in 1980…if Clinton gets 2 terms we will have had two families in the executive branch for a total of 36 years!! We might as well have a king.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:02 am
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