Independent Americans for Change:
The War of Independents and a Plan of Action to Retake our Country

Long-Distance Service
Let me ask you a question: do you know who represents your congressional district in Washington? If you don’t, you can forgive yourself. Almost no one I ask has any idea. It’s just another sign of how distanced we have become from the political process. We see the problems everywhere in our lives, yet the leaders who are supposed to be representing our interests, the ones who are actually supposed be making a difference, are like ghosts, flitting apparitions appearing around election season, before vanishing again.

What Washington Calls Change
It’s clear from the slogans of the presidential campaign that the American people desperately want “change.” But the kind of change the Republicans and the Democrats offer is purely cosmetic. Career politicians of the Dead Old Parties will never bring it about. It’s against their lifelong interests. It would be idiocy to trust those who have gotten us into this mess to lead us in a better direction. What our leaders will never accept is that they are the ones who must be changed - with a swift kick out of office. The catalyst is a wholesale changing of the guard in our House of Representatives.

The Two-Headed Monster
Real change begins with an expansion of the two-party system. The Donkeys and the Elephants have monopolized power for far too long. They have become monopolies. Their first calling: party loyalty, right or wrong. Their partisan bickering has grown so strong that pandering to the base has become a necessity, whether it’s the far right or the far left. One way or another, the independent voter in the middle is left out of the equation, forced to vote for the lesser of two “lessers.”

Lifetime Leeches
For these so-called leaders, remaining in office has somehow become their right, feasting at the public trough. Once they get a taste they are addicted to the power and adulation. Who wouldn’t want to earn a full pension after five years? Who wouldn’t want to earn a couple hundred thousand a year for doing so little? They have found their lifetime career and work, and they have no intention of leaving.

But the architects of our country designed these offices to be temporary, an opportunity for altruistic service, far from the multi-term, often multi-decade, affair it has become today. Legislative seats were literally just a seasonal, part-time job as recently as the mid-point of the twentieth century. The chief benefit of a transient government being that representatives make decisions based on the public good rather than on how it will affect the next election cycle.

Government by Anesthesia
Today, of course, we have just the opposite. Politicians live constantly in election mode, always smiling for the cameras, always ready with another sound bite, while they furiously dial for dollars. When reelection becomes the goal, the third rails of politics - anything that calls for discipline and sacrifice from the public - are truly lethal to the career politician. Reform is not in their vocabulary. They like the status quo, and when their negligence leads to crisis, they resort to finger-pointing. Anticipation refers only to their next golf junket or meal; the fate of the country is the last thing on their minds.

Tell me this, what has anyone in Washington done about the out of control government spending which has more than doubled the national debt in the last eight years? What about Social Security and Medicare reform? What about alternative forms of energy? You can bet your congressional representative is squawking his head off, but not doing much.

To avoid these third rails, they try to distract us with hot button issues: flag-burning, lethal injection, abortion, gays in the military, while conveniently ignoring the gut level social, economic and political problems that are bringing this country to its knees.

I guess I’ve seen one too many elections and heard the same old bologna repeated over and over again, but know that when all is said and done, we don’t have the best and brightest that we deserve.

Trench Warfare in Your Own Hometown
Let’s face it, and I’ll say it again, real change won’t come from Washington. “Think globally, act locally” is how the old saying goes. To break free of the smothering two party rule, we should amend the saying to “think nationally, run locally.”

What we need is the kind of change Thomas Jefferson was talking about when he said “Every generation needs a new revolution.” But how do we go about it? How can we live up to Jefferson’s ideal and take back our country from the corrupt two-headed monster of the major parties? On a national, or even a statewide basis, the Donkeys and the Elephants are simply too dominant. But I have identified the ideal battleground to take back our country: trench warfare in a district-by-district fight for the House of Representatives.

The Founders of our country intended the lower branch of congress to be the people’s house, the institution closest and most answerable to its local constituents. That’s why representatives only have to run for office in their districts, instead of statewide like senators. And that’s why the House is the perfect location to merge local and national interests and to launch a new kind of politics beyond the dead old Democrats and Republicans.

Third Party Lockout
There have been plenty of third party attempts in our nation’s history. Ross Perot made a strong run for the presidency in 1992, before he bowed out under pressure from the heavyweights. In the early 20th century, Teddy Roosevelt almost broke through with his famed Bull Moose Party, but even the former president’s popularity and name recognition wasn’t enough to crack the two-party lock on power. Other third parties were led by splinter groups with narrow agendas. These efforts were doomed to fail because they aimed too high, reaching for the top post in the country, rather than out to their communities where they could make a real difference.

Barnstorming the Neighborhood
The local-level constituency of a House seat, on the other hand, provides independent candidates a legitimate chance at victory. They won’t have to buy huge amounts of television airtime. The districts are small enough to allow someone to campaign as it used to be done: showing up at the local diner, a town hall meeting, or the Friday night high school football game. Ringing doorbells. Posting signs on front lawns. We’re talking old-fashioned shoe leather here.

Independent Americans for Change

Independent candidates, however, can’t go it alone. They need an organization to support them. I’m not referring to yet another obscure third party that lives on the margins of the national scene. I’m talking about a loosely-organized but cohesive group willing to give its time and money to remake our Congress and our country - the Independent Americans for Change, or I.A.C.

Political “Experience” Not Required
In district-level caucuses across the country, local branches of the coalition can select qualified candidates to run for the House of Representatives. These candidates should be chosen based on their accomplishments anywhere but in government. Prior political experience, if anything, should be considered a stain on a resume. When I hear politicians brag about their “thirty years of experience,” I doubt they’re talking about three decades of accomplishments, but rather, one year of glad-handing repeated thirty times over. They gain power, but don’t get any smarter. Groundhog’s Day for hacks.

Tumbling Upwards
Not am I interested in small potato candidates who have served on local school boards and city councils, the traditional training schools for higher office. This doorway into the system has become all too common among career politicians. But this is a big part of the problem.  Nobody learns anything from these positions except how to win friends, influence people, and game the system.

For too long we’ve allowed these local yokels, with their small-town minds and predilections for petty bickering, to leapfrog up to the national level almost by default. Nobody knows these people. Nobody really cares about these people. So by the force of their own sheer tenacity they stick around, until the next thing you know, they’re on the House Appropriations Committee approving another billion dollar package of pork. We don’t want small-town minds electing themselves; we want small town communities electing big minds for our country.  This is a local dog fight with national consequences.

Walking the Walk
What we need are real doers. You might recall George Washington never volunteered to become president. His colleagues nominated him based on his accomplishments and ability to lead. We would return to that approach, pulling leaders from the private sector who have actually done something with their lives. People who have started a business, led a university. Individuals who have created an enterprise, made a payroll, and made a profit. Not the ones who have watched others do it. Independent thinkers willing to flip-flop on their ideas as they evolve. Fighters willing to lead the bureaucracy, rather than cozy up to it.

When we elect a local person to represent us in Washington, we’re asking that person to make national and international decisions.  Each district has enough local politicians and bureaucrats making local decisions and passing local ordinances and pandering to local needs.  We don’t’ need this kind of representation in Washington.

The Big Picture
You can have somebody aware of local issues, but that person must be first and foremost aware of the big picture. Catering to the locals has led to the creation of every form of pork sausage imaginable, and believe me, you don’t want to see what goes into the making of this stuff.  The local representative is there to make national law.

Limited Service
These candidates will have accomplished enough in their careers to have the luxury of serving their country for a limited tenure, then returning to their jobs. They are not looking for a lifetime career because they already have a position that they are good at.  They don’t mind being turned out  of office because they came from a good place.  They are not dependent on the public dole. And, they don’t mind going back to private life. If someone has a burning desire to nominate themselves for public service, believing he can effect real change in politics, I wholeheartedly support him, but I’m leery of people choosing themselves, and I’d like to try something new.

Discriminatory Election Laws
Running these fresh faces won’t be easy. The Constitution gives the states power to make the rules even on national elective offices, and the two major parties have taken extensive steps to protect their advantage. The states make it difficult to run an independent, and in many cases, even harder to list a new party, like the Independent Americans for Change, next to a candidate’s name on the ballot, which is crucial for election, as it provides a sense of purpose and cohesion.

Yet in half the states of the union, election laws force new political parties to qualify statewide in order to appear on the ballot, essentially knee-capping independent candidates from the outset. In California, for example, this means the Independent Americans for Change would have to sign up almost 100,000 members right away, or get nearly one million people to sign a petition. This an obvious measure to clip any chance of a grassroots uprising.

Offering more hope, 25 other states have much more sensible ballot rules, allowing candidates to list whatever party name they choose on the ballot as long as they obtain the minimum number of signatures to qualify for the election. States like Georgia and Illinois, requiring more than 10,000 signatures, make it harder, and we should complain vocally in these states and wherever the major parties have locked out the little guy.

Bringing Down the House
Until now, the best and the brightest have opted out of the elective process. Successful people feel they are too busy to get into the political morass. It’s time we twist some high-powered arms to serve.  It’s going to take effort to get candidates with strong credentials. But as the IAC gains momentum, they will realize that our one chance for change is from the bottom up. Like the empty slogan du jour of this presidential election, “change,” the term “grassroots” has become a cliché in American politics. But all good revolutions come from the grassroots. And there’s nothing more American than that ideal. Don’t forget, our very first act as a people was beating the mighty British Empire.  Now it’s time for another revolution. Luckily, thanks to our Constitution, it won’t require guns or cannons. It can happen at the ballot box.

Please keep in mind that your congressperson is not some distant “they,” but really a neighbor, the best you region has to offer to represent the nation. Check out your current congressional representative. He probably has done very little for his country, but plenty for his wallet. This is your fight.  Log on to our web site, www.captiveamerican.com.  We will help you with ideas and material, but it is up to you to organize your own Independent Americans for Change in your district.

A Strategy for the Independent Americans for Change

• The I.A.C. will not constitute a traditional political party. It will not function on a national or statewide level other than to support candidates for the House of Representatives on a district by district basis.
• As it gains momentum and begins to send independent representatives to Congress, the I.A.C. will spread across the country, eventually fielding candidates in all 435 congressional districts.

Qualifications for Candidacy

• Accomplishments and successes in the private sector, not in politics;
• An absolute belief in the need to take our country back from the two corrupt dominant parties.
• Demonstrated independence, integrity, and the willingness to place the good of the country before all other considerations;

Candidates will not be required to pledge allegiance to an ideological orthodoxy of any kind. But they will be required to:

• Pledge, in writing, to serve a limited amount of terms in office;
• Pledge, in writing, not to take contributions from outside of their district;
• Pledge, in writing, that if elected they will support and push for the public financing of elections

To contact the Independent Americans for Change, please use the form below.

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