A New Party?
Politics today seems dominated by loonies and fanatics: On the right, "Stop the steal" and anti-vaxxers; on the left, "woke" thought-police and spendthrift policies with no implementation plan.
Extremists succeed mainly in driving us apart, not (so far) changing government. But do the leaders of either party offer a coherent governing vision? The Republicans have become the party of "just say no." The Democrats have definite goals, such as climate change, but have no vision to fix broken government. That's because restoring accountability requires breaking the stranglehold of the Democrats' largest interest group, the public unions.
Most Americans share basic values and goals, surveys show, but it's hard to imagine either party doing what's needed to bring Americans together. Like trench warfare, the parties are permanently dug in with their ideologies, funders, and interest groups. What we see in Washington is what we will get.
Do you think the status quo is acceptable? Most Americans don't. But neither party, as Philip Howard explained in Try Common Sense, will respond to public frustrations. Now Andrew Yang has written a book, Forward, calling for a new party, in part relying on Philip's analysis. While we think a new movement must offer a more focused and aggressive vision, Yang has opened the door to public debate on a new party. The challenge is to galvanize a broad centrist constituency.
Here is our vision for a new party, published in American Purpose. Initially, the party would not run candidates but would support centrist candidates from existing parties. The litmus test is this: Would you embrace this movement?
Former Obama healthcare adviser Ezekiel Emanuel calls for “simplification commissions” to replace the red tape jungle in American healthcare. It is impossible to rein in runaway costs or address the plague of burnout without a simpler framework that allows doctors and nurses to focus on patient care, not mindless bureaucracy. See our Common Good Platform.
Richard Williams of the Mercatus Center, writing in Real Clear Policy, calls for broad scale simplification, citing our work.