[There is a growing independent voter movement. Currently, its chief organ is IndependentVoting.org. I think it provides an opportunity for melding. Please consider the below emails.]
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 9:16 AM
Subject: Fwd: AL 6th Congressional district-- Independent status
To: Gwen Mandell <gmandell@cuip.org>
Cc: Lee Woodsmall <wlwoodsmall@gmail.com>, Matt Vaughan <matt@unitedrepublic.org>, "Rick Staggenborg,MD" <staggenborg4senate@hotmail.com>, Jim Rubens <jimrubens@gmail.com>
Dear Gwen,
I am following up on the email I sent you on November 10th.
I would like to throw out some thoughts for IndependentVoting.org in 2015.
As your website shows, Independents are much aggrieved by their exclusion from the electoral process.
The website says Independents are 40% of the electorate.
That is a lot of exclusion, and a basis for a lot of grievance.
How much of that aggrievement is IndependentVoting capturing?
I think the sense of exclusion from the electoral process, and the sense of non-responsiveness of the political system to the voters, has become massive in the United States.
I think this is manifested in a proliferation of organizations, which are trying to take a stand about this.
IndependentVoting is rightfully angry about the extent to which the Republican and Democratic parties exercise their power to retard Independents in having a say.
These other organizations similarly have great complaint about how the American people are being ill-served by a broken system.
A number of the organizations have identified the role of money in politics as the main source of the problem.
I think IndependentVoting should similarly consider the role of money in politics as a source of the power of the Republican and Democratic parties to retard Independents in having a say.
The independent voter movement has a history, which Jacqueline Salit recounts in Independents Rising going back to Ross Perot in 1992. The other organizations I am referring to are of a more recent vintage and may need to appreciate that change takes longer to accomplish than they are targeting.
I think these other organizations are reflecting a powerful surge in voter sentiment that the political system is broken and needs fixing, some way, somehow.
If there is this powerful surge in voter sentiment, I think IndependentVoting would want to be in on it.
My idea in the AL 6th Congressional district is to travel as an Independent, who is waving the MAYDAY.US banner.
I would like to find others in the independent voting movement who have similar perceptions as mine, and who are looking for a melding of the aggrievement that Independents have from being excluded, with a powerful surging of voter sentiment that the political system is broken and needs fixing, and with the role of money as prime culprit, which urgently needs addressing by the American people.
I propose to IndependentVoting that it consider putting discussion on its website about the things I am saying here.
For your information, the persons copied on this email are my contact at MAYDAY.US, a contact I have at Represent.Us, an acquaintance of mine in Oregon who works on behalf of the Amend movement, and Jim Rubens, one of MAYDAY's 2014 candidates.
I am posting various email communications on The MAYDAY Supporters Blog in order to promote mutual awareness among organizations, and I will post this email on the blog.
Thank you for your attention to this email, Gwen, and I hope it provides some worthwhile food for thought for IndependentVoting.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 10, 2014 at 4:43 PM
Subject: AL 6th Congressional district-- Independent status
To: "Gwen Mandell, Independen." <gmandell@independentvoting.org>
Dear Gwen,
In my campaign in the AL 6th Congressional district this year, I pounded for eight months on whether there is something fundamentally wrong with Congress.
I could not get any candidate or anyone in the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington or any in the local media or any local political commentator to discuss whether there is something fundamentally wrong with Congress, or not.
With null discussion about that, there could not be and there was not any discussion, if something was fundamentally wrong, what could be done about it.
This is fulsomely documented in my campaign website.Be An Alabama Rootstriker* with Rob Shattuck, and ready access to relevant links can be found at From the AL 6th Cong'l district: I am not crushed.
I think I now consider myself officially an Independent, and, if I try again in 2016, I am pretty sure it would be as an Independent.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
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