Mark Satin on Joe Klein on being "Fed Up"

In a nice echo of Sam Waterson's comments, Radical Middle author Mark Satin talks up Joe Klein's Politics Lost, which is driven by the same frustraction...

with the insulting welter of sterilized speechifying, insipid photo ops, and idiotic advertising that passes for public discourse these days. I believe that American politics has become overly cautious, cynical, mechanistic, and bland; and I fear that the inanity and ugliness of postmodern public life has caused many Americans to lose the habits of citizenship.

More importantly, Mark culls several worthy suggestions for how we can up the sanity level of our political discourse. Why not give them a try?

Unity08 Brings "Law & Order" to Presidential Nominations

Sorry, couldn't resist the play on words. :-) I actually really like the latest Politico essay by Sam Waterson, reprinted on the Unity08 blog. The money quote:

I'm frustrated at the obsessive playing for petty advantage that takes the place of doing the nation's urgent business. Every day I read stories in the newspaper that tell me something is very wrong with the way we nominate our presidential candidates, articles about candidates abandoning campaign finance reform measures so they can raise unlimited amounts of money, or about the candidates designing and redesigning their statements to suit the money people, the partisans and voters in primary states. I'm left without any certain idea of what the candidates represent, what they stand for, what their priority issues are and what they may be counted on to do. I crave their honest opinions on the issues that I think are crucial to the future of the country and our planet.

But the experienced men and women who designed and run Unity08 aren't reacting to headlines only. They have taken a long and deep look at causes, and they have a great idea. Not everything about our presidential nominating process needs to change, but some things need to change a lot. Unity08's plan will change only what needs improving; it aims at a moderate revolution, or a revolution of moderates, like the one that founded this nation. It doesn't intend to upset the apple cart. It means to set it right again, and put it back on track. With enough delegates signing on, it looks to me as if it has a really good shot at doing it. I hope a lot of people will join us at www.unity08.com.

Be Your Own Founding Father (or Mother)

Okay, it is mostly just a cheap marketing ploy --- Founding Delegates, as far as I can tell, are no different than any other delegates -- but I still wanted to be one of the first ones to sign up. How about you?

CNN covers Unity08, but who cares?

Congratulations to Unity08 for being included in CNN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential Race. It is great to see them raising the bipartisan option, but the sampling of responses highlight both the promise and perils of being middle-of-the-road. Obviously, pure partisans aren't interested, but neither are those who have lost faith in both parties, as well as the process. The challenge is to attract people who are, as the saying goes, "disillusioned but not disenchanted" -- frustrated, but not yet cynical. Not easy, but Unity08 is run by some pretty media-savvy folks, so they may well be able to pull it off...