A conversation today via Twitter – it started with this:
No Labels @NoLabelsOrg
36% of Americans identify as independents, but politicians keep moving toward the extremes. 12:15 PM – 12 Mar 12
Retweeted by Tony Messenger
[emphasis added]
Michael Bersin @MBersin
@tonymess Uh, you might want to check out the connections between No Labels and Americans Elect. Astroturf 501c4 1:59 PM – 12 Mar 12
Tony Messenger @tonymess
@MBersin Both organizations have a place in the political conversation, in my opinion, though I wish all the funding was transparent. 2:06 PM – 12 Mar 12
“…I wish all the funding was transparent.”
I’m hoping that was intended irony.
The connections between No Labels and Americans Elect, bastions of High Broderism:
No Labels and Americans Elect: A List of Known Connections
Jim Cook 7/28/2011Americans Elect is a 501c4 corporation founded last year and headquartered inside the Washington DC beltway that does not disclose the identity of the people who are funding it.
No Labels is also a 501c4 corporation founded last year and headquartered inside the Washington DC beltway that does not disclose the identity of the people who are funding it.
A major goal of Americans Elect is to run its own candidate for President of the United States in 2012. A major goal announced by No Labels at its launch is to organize in all 435 congressional districts and spend money to influence campaigns for Congress in 2012….
Go, read the whole thing.
Back to the Twitter conversation:
Michael Bersin @MBersin
@tonymess Both organizations are almost one and the same. Transparency? Heh. That’ll be the day. And the myth of the political independent. 2:17 PM – 12 Mar 12
Tony Messenger @tonymess
@MBersin Myth of the political independent? So I don’t exist? 2:23 PM – 12 Mar 12
Michael Bersin @MBersin
@tonymess Anecdote does not equal data. 2:25 PM – 12 Mar 12
Tony Messenger @tonymess
@MBersin Perhaps we need more than 140 characters. Are you saying there’s no such thing as a political independent? 2:26 PM – 12 Mar 12
Michael Bersin @MBersin
@tonymess More than 140 is a good idea. True independents exist, just not in the numbers groups like No Labels and “conv wisdom” promote. 2:29 PM – 12 Mar 12
Not old media conventional wisdom:
Setting the Record Straight: Correcting Myths About Independent Voters
Alan I. Abramowitz, Senior Columnist July 7th, 2011….It’s true that independents are a diverse group. But that’s mostly because the large majority of independents are independents in name only. Research by political scientists on the American electorate has consistently found that the large majority of self-identified independents are “closet partisans” who think and vote much like other partisans. Independent Democrats and independent Republicans have little in common. Moreover, independents with no party preference have a lower rate of turnout than those who lean toward a party and typically make up less than 10% of the electorate. Finally, independents don’t necessarily determine the outcomes of presidential elections; in fact, in all three closely contested presidential elections since 1972, the candidate backed by most independent voters lost….
More on the Twitter conversation:
Tony Messenger @tonymess
@MBersin Well, I am one. And unless the political scientists and pollsters are all being duped, they think they exist, too. 2:32 PM – 12 Mar 12
Michael Bersin @MBersin
@tonymess Yes they do, just not in the numbers or with the political effect that conventional wisdom bestows upon them. Overton Window, too. 2:34 PM – 12 Mar 12
Thus endeth the conversation. Though, Tony Messenger is always welcome to comment around these here parts.
The Overton Window:
….The current location of the Overton Window is so far to the right of any objective political spectrum, that what are now considered Extreme Left Positions are really not extreme at all….
That is, the Overton Window has been pulled so far to the right that the republican politicians in the past who supported family planning, contraception, a health insurance mandate, investment in public infrastructure, a somewhat responsible budget view that included increasing revenue (and on and on) are considered heretics by today’s republican Party. And a handful of progressive bloggers in Missouri are considered a den of radical leftists.
Go figure.
conjectures that its possibly a sort of “ponzi” scheme with the goal of political mischief via third party machinations. Millionaires contributing to set up the infrastructue, etc. will be paid back from contributions … link to Benen here.