As much as I believe that the Supreme Court has been captured and needs immediate and lasting reform, I agree that some of the proposals are likely to be non-starters in the current environment. If the answer is to break the system, when do you put the sledge hammer down? And does the other side pick it up and continue where you left off?
People want radical change, but unrealistic promises are just going to be broken promises and then what? When the far left factions become disillusioned with their progressive champions because they cannot implement the change they said they would, where do they (and the party) go? Further left? Is it is just a downward spiral into partisan chaos? That is what it feels like right now. These are some of the issues I really have been struggling with and have recently tried to take a step back from the metaphorical ledge.
Mütter, thank you for taking the time to write this. You are asking the right questions, and the sledgehammer question is the one at the heart of it. When one side swings it, the other side eventually picks it up, and the country becomes the thing that breaks. That is the spiral you are describing, and it is real. I want to offer you a different way of seeing this moment, because the spiral is not our only future. It is only our future if we keep letting the two parties define the choices for us.
The article laid out how senior Democratic leaders are selling proposals that cannot be delivered, and how that pattern of broken promises feeds exactly the disillusionment you described. What the op-ed did not have room to answer is your real question, which is where we go from here. That is what I want to share with you now.
The forces pulling the Democrats further left and the Republicans further right are structural, and neither party is coming back to the middle on its own. What they left behind is not a vacuum of despair. It is an invitation for the rest of us to organize.
I have written a book on exactly this subject, called "The Opening." It will be available in bookstores and on Amazon in about two weeks.
The book does three things. First, it diagnoses how our system quietly broke over the last forty years, and why replacing politicians or handing full control to one party cannot fix it. Second, it explains why this moment is different from every earlier third-party attempt, and what history tells us about the conditions under which a new party actually breaks through. The last time those conditions lined up was 1854, and the party that rose out of that moment was the Republican Party. Third, it lays out the answer, which is a new party built for the abandoned middle, focused on results rather than performance, and designed to bring everyone back to the work of governing together.
The point is not to break the system. The point is to give the sixty million a home, and to bring all three parties to the table to work together on real solutions again. That is how you put the sledgehammer down. You replace it with a ballot, and you replace disillusionment with a plan.
If you would like to read the manuscript now rather than wait for the printed copy, I would be glad to send you the digital version. It is written to be an easy read, and I think it will speak directly to the questions you are wrestling with. I would so value your feedback.
You stepped back from the ledge for a reason. There is more to hope for than the current fight suggests, and there are a lot more of us in the middle than either party wants you to believe. The work ahead is not to tear anything down. It is to unite America, rather than to continue this constant battle.
Thanks for sharing, would love to read it. I will keep an eye out for the book, though. I would love to purchase to make sure you get something out of it on the back end. That’s how books work, right? (Genuinely not sure).
I said that as a form of catharsis because I feel completely in the wilderness. Even the Bulwark, which has been my go to political news for a while, seems so hell bent on repudiating Trump that I feel they are ignoring what it is doing to the Democratic Party in the process and what it could do to the country.
I am really astounded I find myself here, to be honest. I have always been a loyal “blue no matter who” millennial Democrat and absolutely abhor just about everything that has come out of this administration. I thought, like many, that a change in control would help swing the pendulum back the other direction. But now I see what is evolving in the Democratic Party and it is dark, and weird, and hell bent on attacking their own, and moving away from experience and consensus building…and no one seems to be noticing. I find myself standing in the middle as the party shifted, a place I never thought I would be. It is like watching a slow moving train wreck with no one at the brake. And maybe some of these candidates will be victorious, but at what expense?
I'm not writing the book to make any money. I am writing the book in order to save our country. No kidding. I don't need the money and I'm not driven by money. In fact, it is the almighty dollar that has gotten our nation into this sad position we are in today. How about us hitting that $4 trillion mark in the past two days? Not sure how long it's going to take our descendants to pay off that loan.
I will send you a PDF version of the final book copy prior to the actual printing, which should be in the next 24-48 hours. In the meantime, please check out our website at https://centercratic.party/
That's what this book is all about. Love to get your feedback. It has been so great with all the positive feedback we have been receiving from across the country since we recently launched our center movement. Nothing better than shaking the tree.
As much as I believe that the Supreme Court has been captured and needs immediate and lasting reform, I agree that some of the proposals are likely to be non-starters in the current environment. If the answer is to break the system, when do you put the sledge hammer down? And does the other side pick it up and continue where you left off?
People want radical change, but unrealistic promises are just going to be broken promises and then what? When the far left factions become disillusioned with their progressive champions because they cannot implement the change they said they would, where do they (and the party) go? Further left? Is it is just a downward spiral into partisan chaos? That is what it feels like right now. These are some of the issues I really have been struggling with and have recently tried to take a step back from the metaphorical ledge.
Mütter, thank you for taking the time to write this. You are asking the right questions, and the sledgehammer question is the one at the heart of it. When one side swings it, the other side eventually picks it up, and the country becomes the thing that breaks. That is the spiral you are describing, and it is real. I want to offer you a different way of seeing this moment, because the spiral is not our only future. It is only our future if we keep letting the two parties define the choices for us.
The article laid out how senior Democratic leaders are selling proposals that cannot be delivered, and how that pattern of broken promises feeds exactly the disillusionment you described. What the op-ed did not have room to answer is your real question, which is where we go from here. That is what I want to share with you now.
The forces pulling the Democrats further left and the Republicans further right are structural, and neither party is coming back to the middle on its own. What they left behind is not a vacuum of despair. It is an invitation for the rest of us to organize.
I have written a book on exactly this subject, called "The Opening." It will be available in bookstores and on Amazon in about two weeks.
The book does three things. First, it diagnoses how our system quietly broke over the last forty years, and why replacing politicians or handing full control to one party cannot fix it. Second, it explains why this moment is different from every earlier third-party attempt, and what history tells us about the conditions under which a new party actually breaks through. The last time those conditions lined up was 1854, and the party that rose out of that moment was the Republican Party. Third, it lays out the answer, which is a new party built for the abandoned middle, focused on results rather than performance, and designed to bring everyone back to the work of governing together.
The point is not to break the system. The point is to give the sixty million a home, and to bring all three parties to the table to work together on real solutions again. That is how you put the sledgehammer down. You replace it with a ballot, and you replace disillusionment with a plan.
If you would like to read the manuscript now rather than wait for the printed copy, I would be glad to send you the digital version. It is written to be an easy read, and I think it will speak directly to the questions you are wrestling with. I would so value your feedback.
You stepped back from the ledge for a reason. There is more to hope for than the current fight suggests, and there are a lot more of us in the middle than either party wants you to believe. The work ahead is not to tear anything down. It is to unite America, rather than to continue this constant battle.
Paul
Thanks for sharing, would love to read it. I will keep an eye out for the book, though. I would love to purchase to make sure you get something out of it on the back end. That’s how books work, right? (Genuinely not sure).
I said that as a form of catharsis because I feel completely in the wilderness. Even the Bulwark, which has been my go to political news for a while, seems so hell bent on repudiating Trump that I feel they are ignoring what it is doing to the Democratic Party in the process and what it could do to the country.
I am really astounded I find myself here, to be honest. I have always been a loyal “blue no matter who” millennial Democrat and absolutely abhor just about everything that has come out of this administration. I thought, like many, that a change in control would help swing the pendulum back the other direction. But now I see what is evolving in the Democratic Party and it is dark, and weird, and hell bent on attacking their own, and moving away from experience and consensus building…and no one seems to be noticing. I find myself standing in the middle as the party shifted, a place I never thought I would be. It is like watching a slow moving train wreck with no one at the brake. And maybe some of these candidates will be victorious, but at what expense?
I'm not writing the book to make any money. I am writing the book in order to save our country. No kidding. I don't need the money and I'm not driven by money. In fact, it is the almighty dollar that has gotten our nation into this sad position we are in today. How about us hitting that $4 trillion mark in the past two days? Not sure how long it's going to take our descendants to pay off that loan.
I will send you a PDF version of the final book copy prior to the actual printing, which should be in the next 24-48 hours. In the meantime, please check out our website at https://centercratic.party/
That's what this book is all about. Love to get your feedback. It has been so great with all the positive feedback we have been receiving from across the country since we recently launched our center movement. Nothing better than shaking the tree.
Great. Thanks.