More Magical Thinking for the Vast American Middle

Or at least magical thinking by one of the highest paid — and most often wrong magical thinkers out there.

Thomas Friedman in this Sunday’s NYT gushes about a new, third party that will shortly unveil itself and become a real contender (he has high hopes) in the next Presidential election.

The goal of Americans Elect is to take a presidential nominating process now monopolized by the Republican and Democratic parties, which are beholden to their special interests, and blow it wide open — guaranteeing that a credible third choice, nominated independently, will not only be on the ballot in every state but be able to take part in every presidential debate and challenge both parties from the middle with the best ideas on how deal with the debt, education and jobs.

“Our goal is to open up what has been an anticompetitive process to people in the middle who are unsatisfied with the choices of the two parties,” said Kahlil Byrd, the C.E.O. of Americans Elect, speaking from its swank offices, financed with some serious hedge-fund money, a stone’s throw from the White House.

It is hard to know where to start on this. I am sympathetic to the idea of trying to open up the political process so that it isn’t as captured by parties and their agendas (increasingly those of business interests), but I don’t get how an effort led by and financed by *hedge-funds* is meant to have better credibility. (Anyone remember America2008? Thought not.)

But fundamentally it looks to me that Friedman and his pals at Americans Elect as well as much of the Vast American Middle can’t quite come to grips with how broken — purposely broken — the American political process is AND how far off of the rails the Republican party has gotten. And that somehow some third party candidate will provide some antidote to how broken Washington is. Just think about that for a minute. If the Senate is dysfunctional NOW, it won’t get better with a third party President with no allies or allegiances anyplace in government. If Republicans are using their tenure in Congress to make sure that President Obama doesn’t get re-elected (rather than governing), those Republicans won’t change their stripes with a third party President in the White House. If Republicans are willing to bring down the American economy to get policy changes they can’t get via legislative process, they won’t change their tactics with a third party President in the White House. But you can see how this can appeal to those folks who think that an American President has the motivating powers of a monarch.

It will be interesting to watch this. Because this seems to me to be one more way that Serious Pundits, journalists and people in the so-called Middle try to get off of the hook from calling Bullshit on the folks who are deliberately taking a wrecking ball to American government. So instead of getting off of the Everyone Does It merry-go-round, we have the 21st century political equivalent of *tune in, turn on, drop out*.