Unity08

Unity08 is a group that believes the Democratic and Republican parties represent only their bases, ignoring the majority of people in the middle. The two parties engage in partisan fighting instead of coming together to solve problems. Their solution is to have an online convention in June 2008 where delegates would nominate a presidential candidate and decide what issues to focus on. The presidential ticket would include one Democrat and one Republican or have an independent presidential candidate that includes people from both parties. They want a bipartisan ticket with moderate centrist candidates.

An online political convention sounds interesting, a hell of a lot more interesting than the Democratic or Republican conventions. But Unity08 has several glaring problems.

People Don't Care About the Vice-Presidential Candidate

The 1988 Election proved this. People loved Lloyd Bentsen and hated Dan Quayle, but they voted for George Bush. Unless an independent wins the Unity08 nomination, you're going to have a general election with 2 Republicans and 1 Democrat (the more likely scenario given the people Unity08 think would be great candidates) or 2 Democrats and 1 Republican. Either of these scenarios isn't much of an improvement over an election with 1 Republican and 1 Democrat.

Partisan Fighting Will Continue

Unity08 is not fielding candidates for Congress so Democrats and Republicans will continue to engage in partisan fighting. If the Democratic and Republican parties are the problem, how does having a presidential ticket with one member from each of the problem parties solve the problem?

Partisan Fighting Isn't the Problem

Leaders ignoring the people is the problem. Most people want the USA to pull out of Iraq. Democrats were elected to stop the Iraq war, but voted to keep funding the war. Most people want the government to secure the border with Mexico and stop illegal immigration, but Congress creates immigration bills that do neither.

Partisan fighting isn't necessarily a bad thing because it can prevent bad laws from being passed. The worst bills of the Bush Administration had strong bipartisan support.

• No Child Left Behind Act (Passed 384-45 in the House, 87-10 in the Senate)
• Patriot Act (Passed 357-66 in the House, 98-1 in the Senate)
• Iraq War (Passed 296-133 in the House, 77-23 in the Senate)

Senator Joe Lieberman wants Congress to stop partisan gridlock and come together to use surveillance cameras around the country and monitor phone conversations and emails. If this is what's going to happen when Democrats and Republicans come together, please disband Unity08 and give me gridlock.

No Issues

Because Unity08 is waiting until their convention to craft their platform, they have taken no stands on any political issues. This policy makes it difficult for people to be passionate about Unity08 and to donate money to it. Why get excited or donate money to them now? You don't know where they stand on "crucial issues". You're supposed to trust Unity08 to have your best interests at heart, go to their convention, and hope their stands on the most important issues match yours.