Well, the response to my article on Huffington Post yesterday, entitled Wanted: Multimillionaire With Conscience To Launch Third Party, was a bit overwhelming. Unbelievably, an honest-to-goodness millionaire contacted me and he and his friends are considering kick-starting the effort by helping create a website and getting us a web presence in the social media world. If there are more of you millionaires out there burdened with a conscience, please contact us as there is always more we can do with proper funding.
More amazing was the reader response. I have written enough articles now on the web to understand that bloggers can be a tough crowd, as Rodney Dangerfield always professed. But, the response we got yesterday was incredible. Not only was it 90% supportive, it was an intelligent discussion of how best to implement the idea without any of the pettiness that sometimes blogs degenerate into, especially between liberals and conservatives. Of course some missed the point entirely and suggested that a third party was not needed. They said all we needed to do was pass a constitutional amendment or pass a new law making lobbying and big campaign contributions illegal or enact a plan for publicly financed elections. While all great ideas, I am not sure who in Washington they thought would vote for such changes in the law. The whole idea of this effort is to get some people into Washington that would support such efforts.
The key in making this a reality is to get people to believe that it really can succeed. I'm not talking about being a minor irritant to the major parties, I mean to start to win local and national elections. Rome wasn't built in a day, but the speed we do this at is solely dependent on you. The more you network with your friends and family, the faster the idea spreads. I understand the negativity of those readers who thought it was an impossible task, but I believe that it is just this negativity that we need to overcome if we are to be successful. World events today and wars are depressing, foreclosures are depressing, joblessness is depressing. Figuring out how to fix it all can be very uplifting. You just have to suspend belief for a short period of time until you begin to see the results of people working together. It is a magnificent feeling if we can pull it off. What's the alternative, listen to the music on the Titanic?
I want to create a new website as soon as we get a little money and tech support that will be capable of capturing names and emails of people who are interested (no, we won't be selling your private information to fund our vacations). No fundraising at this stage, just expressions of interest. Then, I would like to announce when we have successfully signed up 50,000 people or 100,000 people or 1 million people. I have no idea how long this will take. It could take three weeks or three months or three years. But, I am encouraged by the fact that Charlie Sheen signed up 1.1 million Twitter followers in just three days. I know, I am no Charlie Sheen, but you have to admit it does demonstrate the power of connecting on the internet. If Tunisians and Egyptians could do it, I am sure Americans can figure out how to do it.
So, the next step is to find a name for the new party. People like the fact that the new party will represent the people, but the People's Party or the Workers' Party may sound a bit too Marxist/Leninist for a broad cross section of Americans. And I really want the party to appeal to all Americans across the broad political spectrum. I like the fact that we only have one platform issue, getting rid of lobbyists and money in politics. Once we get rid of the money and lobbyists, policy issues will be decided by what a majority of Americans want to do, while giving proper respect and protections to the minority. If you look at polling data today most of the things that Americans are plainly in favor of seem pretty reasonable, they just aren't being implemented by our government. Any party names that can connote these ideas would be great.
Please use the reader comments below to submit your suggested name for the new party.
Hopefully, very soon I will be back to you with a name of the movement and a website where we can all sign up and get going. At least then I won't have to hear anymore from people who say they agree that the system is broken, they agree that something needs to be done, but there is nothing one person can do and there is no place to organize and join an effort to fix the system. Sign up now and change the world!
John R. Talbott is a best selling author and consultant. His new book is mandatory reading for anyone interested in learning the real reasons for this crisis and how to protect yourself going forward. You can read more about John and the new book at www.stopthelying.com or at amazon.com. Information for media contacts is available at www.stopthelying.com.