Press release from the Independence Party of Minnesota:
Leaders of the Independent Party of Oregon and the Independence Party of Minnesota have reached a “broad strokes” agreement on joining together to form a national coalition of moderate and centrist third parties. The parties will convene a national teleconference this summer to discuss joint nomination of a candidate for President. The group has identified potential third-party partners in multiple states.
“The Democratic and Republican parties are poised to nominate candidates with the highest negative poll ratings in history,” said Rob Harris, a Washington County attorney and member of the Oregon Independent Party State Council, who was central to the talks between the two parties. “With the two parties nominating historically unpopular candidates, this is a conversation that is long overdue. We believe voters are ready for a change”
“We have been in a long decline in the civility of the nation’s politics with a matching rise in negative partisanship,” echoed State Chair Phil Fuehrer of the Independence Party of Minnesota. “This year’s Presidential spectacles have clearly shown it is time to discuss creating a better way.”
AMccarrick, independent and centrist are not the same thing.
Reminds me of that line in Office Space: “Why should I have to change it, he’s the one who sucks.”
A.J. – “Fuehrer” just means “leader” in German.
Prior to the World War II, Fuehrer (nouns are always capitalized in German) was used in any context to mean “leader.” A director or manager of a business was a “Geschaeftsfuehrer” for example.
Now, Fuehrer is no longer used except in reference to Adolf Hitler. Instead, the more English sounding “Leiter” is used – a director of a business is now a “Geschaeftsleiter”.
But it is hard to change proper names and surnames. It is even possible that Phil Fuehrer is Jewish, since so many Jewish family names are of German origin.
Now if they can convince the people behind American’s Elect and get the never Trump Republicans like Bill Kristol, this could be a game changer.
Yeah, AJ, a good 60% of the public want centrists. That’s why most people are registered independents and those who aren’t registered independents don’t vote in their party’s primaries, because all the candidates are to fringe and idealistic. Republican and Democratic turn out in primaries is under 40%. People beg for centrists and neither party gives them. McCain, Romney, Obama, Clinton, Trump, Sanders, etc. ALL appeal to a fringe movement of each end of the political spectrum.
Also, the name “Fuehrer” is rather unfortunate.
The only people calling for “centrism” and “bipartisanship” are Beltway elites. They already operate within the two parties, so why give any support to another party with no shot at being able to provide patronage for them?