The facts about the new Forward Party

The new Forward Party was announced last Thursday. The news traveled rapidly around the world. The response from everyday Americans was welcoming and enthusiastic with thousands of small donations and new volunteers prepared to support a new organization that is committed to making government work.

The response from other political groups was different. It came from two major camps—1) predictably, the existing political parties who are committed to preserving their closed duopoly and 2) surprisingly, from a handful of groups in the political reform space. The two major parties warn of spoiling the outcome of elections but are really mostly concerned that we will challenge their stranglehold on American politics. The political reform groups, who should be our kindred spirits, appear to be concerned that we have a genuinely fresh idea that might attract some of their donors and volunteers.

The criticism is pretty consistent and narrow. Forward is a spoiler, Forward lacks a platform, and Forward has a plan to run Andrew Yang for president in 2024. All three are wrong.

The spoiler argument is made using the narrow argument about control of Congress in 2022 and the Presidential race in 2024. In fact, Forward is building a sustainable, fully functional political party from the ground up. Unlike other recent third party movements, Forward is not focused on an individual who wants to run for office or on the shiny object of the next presidential race. Instead, it is focused on the 500,000 elective offices throughout the nation. Shockingly, a majority of those races are uncontested because it is so difficult to get onto the ballot unless you are a member of one of the two major political tribes.

Over the next two years, Forward’s main operational focus will be to qualify in all 50 states as a political party. That is no easy task. Virtually every state has significant barriers in place specifically designed to make it very difficult to organize as a party. Some states have different campaign finance rules in place for the two major parties vs. minor parties or independents. Guess which group has it easier. But Forward has a roadmap and expects to have party status in all 50 states by the end of 2024.

So, what does Forward stand for?

The platform. America’s two-party system has conditioned us to expect a party to have a platform taking firm positions on left/right issues, from border control, to immigration, abortion, guns, the national debt, the environment, you name it. Americans can’t imagine a political party without a largely singular position on those types of issues.

In fact, Forward does have a platform. Just like the statement that Forward is a different kind of party, Forward’s platform is a different kind of platform. It’s not about left/right ideology. It is about principles that will create an environment that enables our government to do its job. What’s wrong with that? Look where the status quo has gotten us — a polarized electorate, a government that is largely dysfunctional and the largest group of voters who no longer want to be registered as Democrats or Republicans in recent memory.

Instead, Forward offers our version of a platform; one which focuses on the things that really matter to most Americans. They want a government that 1) protects their individual rights while embracing our diversity, 2) encourages economic growth with a fundamental commitment to equal opportunity for everyone, and 3) provides for safety and prosperity for all members of local communities recognizing both our differences and our common values.

Those are core values of the new Forward Party and we accomplish them by being ideologically inclusive; the first legitimate “big tent” that welcomes Democrats, Republicans, independents, progressives, conservatives, and moderates into the fold. Some call that a weakness, claiming Forward lacks any firm ideology. We think it’s one of our greatest strengths. The idea is so revolutionary, most of the major party faithful and political pundits can’t wrap their heads around it. Instead, they feel the need to define us in their historically narrow confides. How much did we hear that we are “centrists” or “moderates?” Some of us are centrists, and some of us are progressives and some are conservatives. We join together across the political spectrum because we all want to find ways to make America stronger, freer, and fairer.

What’s so bad about that? Conversely we can accept the status quo of our broken politics but, if we do, aren’t we doomed to live on with the mess that the political duopoly has given us? At Forward, we welcome our skeptics to have a dialogue with us because we are all Americans and we all want our country to live up to its potential.

Make no mistake about it. What Forward has set out to do is hard. Really hard. We have to convince people to completely rethink their view of what a party is. After the last decade or so of political dysfunction, Americans may finally be ready to try something new.

It’s striking that almost every time a focus group is formed to test whether a group of regular Republican and Democratic voters can get together to arrive at a consensus over specific issues, they succeed. So why can’t our elected officials do that?

So, what is this new thing?

Forward has a plan to provide a path to reducing the stranglehold the two major parties have on our electoral system and expanding the choices Americans have when they go to the polls. While organizing in the states, Forward will begin working on important changes in the rules of our elections which will help us make the policy modifications we need to enact.

1. Open primaries. Most Americans don’t know this but taxpayers finance party primaries and most primaries are open only to registered members of the party. With more independents than ever on the registration roles, about half of the electorate does not have a voice in choosing candidates. This issue is made even worse because, in most of the nation, gerrymandered Federal and state districts render the general election meaningless. Forward proposes singular open primaries where the top four or more candidates advance to the general election.
2. Ranked Choice Voting. General elections should allow voters to cast their votes for multiple candidates in order of preference. When the votes are counted, the candidate with the fewest number of first choice votes is eliminated and those ballots are then redistributed to the voter’s second choice. And so on until someone receives at least one vote more than 50% of the total. This will prevent winners who represent only a plurality of voters. Think of it as an instant runoff without having to go back to the polls.
3. Electoral Oversight. Elections should be administered by non-partisan oversight. In most jurisdictions, political partisans set the rules of the road and oversee the process from ballot printing to counting the votes. With very few exceptions, states are making it harder to get onto a ballot, harder to vote, and easier to overturn the will of the voters. This is a recipe for disaster.
4. Gerrymandering. Simply put, gerrymandering enables politicians to pick their voters vs. voters picking their politicians. This practice has far-reaching impact on our democracy. At the Federal level, 95% of Congressional races are decided by the primary election which causes the more extreme factions of the parties to get elected to office. The numbers are similar in state elections. If our districts were designed by geography rather than by voters’ party affiliation, candidates with more mainstream views will get elected in the general election.
5. Ease to vote. Voting is the cornerstone of democracy. We must make it easier to vote, not harder. It is unconscionable to enact rules that limit mail-in voting, shorten early voting (or don’t allow it at all), reduce polling places and all but eliminate ballot boxes for early voters who prefer not to mail in their ballot. And security in technology is about to make some major advances and we should be prepared to take advantage of a more secure environment to further expand access to voting.
6. Campaign Finance. Every American has a First Amendment right to contribute to the candidates and causes of their choice. However, in this age of “alternative facts,” it is even more important that the sources of all political contributions be available, without loopholes, so voters can see exactly who is behind the candidates and messages they see and hear.
7. Honoring our Diverse Nation. Not only should we embrace our nation’s beautiful mosaic of cultural diversity, we also must accept that we are a large nation comprised of people with diverse political views.

And this is only the beginning. After establishing itself as a political party in each state, Forward will enlist candidates to run for office who are committed to its core principle of inclusiveness and cooperation. Forward’s litmus test is not “Where do you stand on guns,” but “Are you committed to getting in a room with people of differing political views to arrive at reasonable legislation and regulation, one where no one gets everything and everyone gets something.”

In a nation with nearly 350 million people from everywhere on the planet, it is the only way we can flourish as a democracy.

The time is now.