Plus, the No Labels drama
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Happy Thursday Friend,
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that an epic phenomenon has
been sweeping football stadium crowds off their feet across the nation: Taylor
Swift’s Eras Tour. (I swear, there’s a point to this.) Last weekend, she
performed two breathtaking shows in Unite America’s headquarter city of Denver.
Needless to say, many of my colleagues are still basking in the post-concert
glow. ✨🪩
The aptly-named tour is all about reflecting on and celebrating the phases of
Taylor’s life and music. And just as the global popstar has revolutionized
music with each new Era, our work is all about reimagining American democracy.
We’re doing everything we can to make the coming years theEra of Nonpartisan
Primaries.
Another day, another poll showing Americans are fed up with our broken
democracy
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While I’d love to continue down this pop-infused thread, we must return to our
regularly-scheduled programming. Arecent poll from the Associated Press
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starkly shows us why political reform is one of the most urgent causes of our
day. There are a lot of alarming stats from the poll, but I want to highlight
this disconnect: “About two-thirds of adults say policies on immigration,
government spending, abortion policy and gun policy are not representative of
most Americans’ views.”
That’s the whole problem in a nutshell, isn’t it? Right now, our elected
lawmakers don’t represent the majority. As a regular reader of this newsletter,
you probably know why: partisan primaries and noncompetitive general elections,
what we call thePrimary Problem <[link removed]>. If
we want politicians in office who will actually solve our country’s problems,
and who aren’t beholden to the fringes, we need to move beyond partisan
primaries. Alaska,California
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,Louisiana
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and Washington already have — and we’re supporting campaigns across the
country to get more states to follow.
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Unite America co-chair calls for instant runoffs in the presidential primary
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Kent Thiry, former CEO of a Fortune 250 company, democracy reformer, and now
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, penned an article last week inThe Hill
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making a compelling case for fixing the presidential primary system. I don’t
need to tell you that most of the country is recoiling at the prospect of a
Biden vs. Trump rematch, yet that’s exactly what we seem to be headed toward.
The reason for this seemingly inevitable outcome is our broken primary system,
where candidates can win with a minority of the vote. One powerful solution is
for states to use an instant runoff system, also known as ranked choice voting
(RCV). As Kent says in the piece,
“[RCV] is a system that can give the middle of America’s politics their voice
and choice back. That is not a small feat.
"The good news is that voters are not nearly as polarized as our
legislatures. In fact, most pundits have the causality exactly wrong: It is not
a polarized electorate driving legislatures to the same spot; rather, polarized
legislatures are driving the population into that corner.
State lawmakers and all of those who care about the future of this great
country must work to support and institute ranked-choice voting for, at a
minimum, primary elections — starting with the 2024 presidential primary. This
system does not benefit one party over another. It benefits the candidates who
appeal to the largest group of voters — and therefore benefits our democracy at
a time when it’s needed most.”
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No Labels and its critics are both missing the point. It’s the system, stupid.
Speaking of the presidential primary, you probably saw the deluge of news
about No Labels this week. If not, here’s the scoop: No Labels is a bipartisan
organization aiming to run a unity ticket for president in 2024. On Tuesday,
they held a town hall in New Hampshire
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— the first primary state — to release their policy platform. Sen. Joe Manchin
and former Gov. John Huntsman headlined the event, but several other prominent
political leaders are involved with the group.
To put it mildly, No Labels’ effort has been polarizing. No Labels is
absolutely right that Americans deserve better options and more competent
leadership, but running a third-party candidate in our broken system is not the
answer. No matter what, they’re going to be spoilers for one side or the other
— and right now, polling shows that their candidacy could swing the election to
former President Donald Trump. Recognizing this threat, Democrats and their
allies are doing all they can to stop No Labels — even attempting to block them
from the ballot in certain states (even though they got the signatures needed
to qualify). That’s not exactly a good thing for democracy, either.
From our perspective, No Labels and their critics are missing the point.
Riffing off of a popular political quote, “It’s the system, stupid.” In order
to get better options on the ballot, which could include a future No Labels
candidate, we need to reform our election system first. One viable option is
using instant runoffs in presidential primaries and general elections.
As always, let us know what you think about Three Things Thursday and if you
have ideas for future topics.
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Regards,
Ross
__
Ross Sherman
Press Director, Unite America
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