American Union challenges Green, Libertarian candidates to combine forces to disrupt duopoly

Third party votes could determine the outcome of multiple US Senate seats.

WASHINGTON, DC, US, October 12, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With less than a month until the midterms and control of Congress very much in the balance, the American Union of swing voters has a different pitch to third party candidates; unite to be deciders, and use that leverage to gain legislative concessions. On October 15, the American people have the opportunity to opt-out of partisan politics and collectively bargain for a better social contract that ends poverty, ends mass incarceration, and ends the endless wars.

Third parties, especially the Green and Libertarian candidates, have made the difference in Senate elections in recent years. In November 2020, the Libertarian candidate for the US Senate in Georgia received 2.3% of the votes, forcing the Republican incumbent into an expensive runoff that ultimately allowed Democrats to gain control of the US Senate. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, the Senate candidate’s 3.1% kept anyone from reaching 50% of the vote.

Similarly, in Michigan the Green Party candidate kept Senator Gary Peters from reaching 50% of the vote in his 2020 reelection bid. Two years earlier, in Arizona, the 2.4% of votes cast for the Green Party were greater than Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s margin of victory.

To actually win a seat in Congress would require 35% of the vote, far more than is realistic for these candidates. But in a closely divided electorate, third party candidates have the ability to control the outcome of major races. The American Union, which has called for a general strike against Congress on October 15, offers a new strategy for using this power to advance the legislative goals of these third parties.

The Blueprint for a Better America, a crowdsourced legislative package, was developed through a consensus-driven process informed by national survey data. Publicly available on the American Union website, it contains more than 50 policies under three planks; end poverty, end mass incarceration, and end the endless wars.

These planks advance the legislative goals of the Greens and Libertarians. Both have demanded a reduction in America’s militarism. The Blueprint cuts the defense budget by one-third over five years, closes some foreign military bases, trims the nuclear stockpile, and repeals decades-old authorizations for the endless wars.

Both parties have called for an end to the war on drugs; as part of the end mass incarceration plank, the federal drug war would be ended and the states would be offered an opt-in framework for legalization, regulation, and taxation. Individuals with past federal convictions would have them expunged, and a sentence review process would be established for those currently incarcerated. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, about 42% of people locked up in the federal prisons and jails are there for drug offenses. The Blueprint also includes about 20 more criminal justice reform policies to advance the goal of ending mass incarceration.

The American Union PAC is committed to nonviolent political change, in the traditions of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, whose triple evils of poverty, racism, and militarism are addressed by the three planks of the legislative package. The nonpartisan group's members make a good faith pledge to vote for the Republicans and Democrats who receive the group's endorsement. On Twitter, this willingness is demonstrated with the hashtag #VoteAU, calling others to oppose partisan politics and vote together in November. It has been calculated that a 3.5% bloc of voters will be able to control the balance of power in Congress; third party support could prove critical to achieving this level.

The American Union has focused on building support for this new political strategy in key swing states. In North Carolina, a poll conducted September 24-26 found the Republican and Democratic candidates for US Senate tied at 44%, with Libertarian and Green Party candidates at 2%, with the remainder undecided. Georgia's Senate race is similar; a poll taken September 15-20 found the major party candidates tied at 46%, with the Libertarian at 4% and the rest undecided.

As a nonpartisan group, the American Union ignores party affiliation in making endorsements. Instead, major party candidates are divided into two groups; incumbents and challengers. On October 15, the group intends to scrutinize the Twitter accounts of the more than 1,000 members of Congress and their challengers for use of the hashtag #VoteAU. These public statements, which can be made with a pre-written Tweet, would show overt support for immediate passage of the Blueprint and a desire for the American Union endorsement, with the corresponding bloc of swing votes.

According to their website, incumbents have the first chance to earn the endorsement of the American Union by enacting the Blueprint within 10 days. After its passage, all members of Congress who supported the legislation will receive the group’s endorsement. However, if Congress refuses to act by October 26, their major party challengers who took up the demand for prompt passage of the Blueprint will receive the endorsements, with the expectation they will take immediate action if elected. To decide any unresolved contests among the 470 Congressional races, members of the American Union are scheduled to vote October 16 on how the remaining endorsements should be awarded, including the possibility of random selections.

As the major parties spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these important races, the opportunity to pick up a key bloc of swing votes - and deny them to the opposing party - will require serious consideration by the candidates. Ending poverty, mass incarceration, and the endless wars would usher in a new era of prosperity for the United States, and third party unity can deliver it.

Brian Winters
American Union
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