No labels

[auburnatl1 5,015]

Thoughts? Risks? Imo it’s damn temping. Ie Lieberman is probably too old but he’s always been interesting me.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/07/joe-lieberman-interview-no-labels-2024-election/674711/

Edited July 17, 2023 by auburnatl1

[TexasTiger 13,005]

20 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

Thoughts? Risks? Imo it’s damn temping. Ie Lieberman is probably too old but he’s always been interesting me.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/07/joe-lieberman-interview-no-labels-2024-election/674711/

If you want President Trump, No Labels is for you.

[auburnatl1 5,015]

1 minute ago, TexasTiger said:

If you want President Trump, No Labels is for you.

That assumes that there isn’t as many disillusioned centrist republicans. Of which I am one.

[TexasTiger 13,005]

25 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

That assumes that there isn’t as many disillusioned centrist republicans. Of which I am one.

No, that’s what the polling shows.

[CoffeeTiger 5,167]

Seems like a fundraising or publicity play for this No Labels group.  
 

 

[Gowebb11 9,362]

2 hours ago, auburnatl1 said:

Lieberman is probably too old

Nah, he’s only 81 so he’s well within the norm. 😅

[TexasTiger 13,005]

1 hour ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Seems like a fundraising or publicity play for this No Labels group.  
 

 

Trojan Horse largely funded by Republicans.

[auburnatl1 5,015]

On 7/17/2023 at 8:47 PM, TexasTiger said:

Trojan Horse largely funded by Republicans.

If the options are trump and Biden and there is a viable moderate third option, I will vote for them without pause.   And in 2024, if it’s the right candidate - I think Vegas would like their odds.

[TexasTiger 13,005]

30 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

If the options are trump and Biden and there is a viable moderate third option, I will vote for them without pause.   And in 2024, if it’s the right candidate - I think Vegas would like their odds.

Unless something drastically changes, Vegas oddsmakers won’t touch the 3rd party winning.

[icanthearyou 4,463]

We already have a center-right party.  They are called the Democrats.

 

[jj3jordan 2,059]

1 hour ago, icanthearyou said:

We already have a center-right party.  They are called the Democrats.

 

<clue.

[autigeremt 6,667]

4 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

We already have a center-right party.  They are called the Democrats.

 

BS 

[AUDub 11,179]

43 minutes ago, autigeremt said:

BS 

Weeeeeelllllll

If you took the Democratic party and plopped it into another stock western government based upon rhetoric and policy goals, they'd be centrist to center left. Based on their actual policy accomplishments, they'd be firmly centrist and economically may even lean right in a lot of ways. 

[AUDub 11,179]

6 hours ago, auburnatl1 said:

If the options are trump and Biden and there is a viable moderate third option, I will vote for them without pause.   And in 2024, if it’s the right candidate - I think Vegas would like their odds.

It's situational for me. Being where I am, Alabama, a protest vote is of little consequence. Hell I've voted Libertarian in all but one election in my adult life. 

Were I in a swing stage, a protest is off the table and I would vote pragmatically. 

[auburnatl1 5,015]

18 minutes ago, AUDub said:

It's situational for me. Being where I am, Alabama, a protest vote is of little consequence. Hell I've voted Libertarian in all but one election in my adult life. 

Were I in a swing stage, a protest is off the table and I would vote pragmatically. 

A lot can change between now and then

[icanthearyou 4,463]

11 hours ago, autigeremt said:

BS 

You are incorrect.  There is no left party in this country.  Well, at least not one of the two that actually have power.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by icanthearyou

[AUDub 11,179]

11 hours ago, auburnatl1 said:

A lot can change between now and then

Not with regard to a third party being anything other than a spoiler. 

Edited July 20, 2023 by AUDub

[CoffeeTiger 5,167]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/20/no-labels-ruining-independent-meaning-centrist/

Here's a good read on what an independent centrist thinks about No Labels. 

Quote

Among my Democratic friends, just the mention of No Labels elicits a Yosemite Sam, steam-coming-from-the-ears kind of rage. They see the bipartisan group, which is talking about drafting a third-party presidential candidate, as a stalking horse for Republicans looking to steal votes from President Biden.

 

As a committed independent, politically and temperamentally, I have a different problem with No Labels, which is that by espousing a bunch of mushy, meet-in-the-middle policies, it advances a dated and uninspiring idea of what a dissenting political movement should be.

 

No Labels unveiled its agenda in recent days, with two centrists essentially exiled by their own parties — West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III (D) and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman — acting as spokesmen. Billed as a “blueprint for where America’s commonsense majority wants this country to go,” the 63-page agenda seeks gauzy, familiar bipartisan compromises on pretty much every divisive issue in American life.

The group says the Second Amendment guarantees you the right to own guns, but maybe not before you’re 21. Illegal immigration should be halted, but undocumented immigrants should have a path to citizenship. Stop me if you’ve heard all this before. (I’ll assume that’s a yes.)

Predictably, the document drew immediate mockery from much of the news media and the political left. As my Post colleague Paul Waldman put it, declaring himself to be anti-common-sense: “When you hear someone make an appeal to common sense, as countless politicians in both parties do, there is a good chance they’re leading you down a path in which reality is denied and solutions have little or nothing behind them.”

In my view, the problem with No Labels is not that it’s trying to find a reform agenda that defies the orthodoxies of either party. The problem is in assuming that such an agenda can be found at the midpoint between the two parties, rather than making the case for whichever policies are right — regardless of whether they sound extreme or which party originated them.

 

After all, King Solomon didn’t come to embody wisdom by actually splitting a baby down the middle — that would have been sadistic even for the Old Testament. The baby-splitting was just a threat. The wisdom came in taking the time to discern who had the righteous cause.

I agree with the critics of No Labels that we don’t need an independent movement to forge a bunch of tepid bipartisan compromises. What we could use, however, is a nonpartisan movement that embraces bold reforms and basic American values, no matter which loud constituency in either party might object.

If I were laying out such an agenda, for instance, I’d embrace a more urgent and centralized response to climate change, and I’d argue that the Second Amendment pretty clearly applies only to those in organized militias — both positions firmly held by the far left.

Jennifer Rubin: No Labels can’t hide its right-wing ties

But I’d also sharply rein in deficit spending by subjecting all entitlement programs to means testing (which is, after all, more progressive), and I’d defend the bedrock value of free speech against efforts to impose the approved language of social justice. In the rigid duality of our political moment, these are considered conservative positions.

Probably very few voters would agree with me on every issue, but so what? The point of an independent political movement shouldn’t be to offer whatever anodyne mash-up of the two existing parties yields the broadest consensus in polling data.

The point is to show genuine independence and conviction, rather than reading from a preordained list of talking points. The point is to get beyond the dueling litmus tests and actually think about the pressing issues of the day, even if not everyone agrees with all of the choices you make.

If we’ve learned one thing from Donald Trump’s calamitous takeover of what used to be the Republican Party, it should be that voters are desperate for leaders who aren’t bound by conventional dogmas and who think for themselves. Simply trying to triangulate a perfect midpoint between those dogmas isn’t going to inspire anyone.

I’m skeptical that No Labels can have much success as an electoral force, no matter how well its positions might poll. Modern politics, as we’ve seen, is built not around party platforms but, rather, magnetic personalities. Building a leaderless party structure and then drafting some career politician to head up the ticket might be an effective strategy for overthrowing the two-party monopoly — if you built a time machine and traveled back to 1860.

But where No Labels might yet succeed is in furthering the idea that “independent” or “centrist” simply means you believe passionately in nothing, other than splitting the proverbial baby.

That’s a label thoughtful independents can do without.