Just a quick note — I got a call from The Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP), asking me for money. I think I’ve previously given them money for specific Obama-supporting efforts in swing states.
I used to be heavily involved in various “third” party efforts — I was a huge Nader and Green party supporter in the late 90s, up through 2004 pretty much. Since then I’ve slowly become disenchanted with that scene. Why? Most of the time, we see third parties using the small resources that they have achieved, to bring their issues to the mainstream — an important effort, and arguably part of the process of legitimizing a multi-party system, but to me it just didn’t seem like a focused and efficient movement. I think the #1 focus should be opening up elections, primaries, and the party and voting system, so that it won’t be hardwired to allow for only 2 parties.
Well, guess what, that is what CUIP is doing. I spoke at length with the volunteer who called me, trying to fully understand their mission and activities. My main problem is that their name suggests that they want to “unite” “independents” into a single “party”, which to me is just silly and pointless. The volunteer sufficiently convinced me that their name is a historical artifact, and that this is no longer a goal of theirs.
As some evidence of this — if you go to cuip.org, you are redirected to independentvoting.org, their new identity.
Head over to their website and check out their FAQ and activities, in particular their Open Primaries campaign.
DONATIONS, DONATIONS, DONATION………………NO PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY