Many of you may recall that I ran for president in 2016 while driving for Uber. Was this some sort of joke? No, not at all! My goal was to bring attention to an alternative political party for which I had written a Manifesto, and I succeeded. Having no budget whatever at the time, it’s true that I was unable to garner significant attention for the party, but I still hold onto the same ideas and it’s an experience that keeps on giving back. Feel free to read through the draft pages of the Restoration Party Manifesto here to see what I was thinking in 2016. You can learn from my experience. I sure have.
After the campaign was over, I realized it would be best to convert the work I had prepared into a school for visionary thinkers. The idea of restoration is still a strong component, but I’m satisfied to simply draw together open minded people like myself, who would like to describe the world’s potential in a forward-thinking way, and to put together a think tank environment for considering a better future. With that in mind, I created an informal association, which I fondly refer to as the Visionary Party. There is nothing formal about the “Visionary Party” at this point, nothing institutional, and I have no plans for it, but if you are interested in doing something with it, let me know.
You probably want a quick overview. The gist of it is the restoration of government back to the people. I called for a three dimensional perspective that sees the left to right political spectrum as an insufficient way to describe our true opinions. The Libertarians had added a Y axis to the traditional chart, so that left-right (X axis) would retain the traditional liberal values on the left versus the conservative conservative values on the right, but plucked out issues that specifically addressed freedom and put those onto a Y axis. It’s interesting to see some of these Y value charts because some view regulation positively. A Libertarian would see regulation as descructive to a happy ideal, so they would place regulation on the negative side of the wide axis. But not matter how you may view this, I saw a third axis that had to complete the picture and I don’t think there are many who would disagree with me that the positive side of it is better than the negative. That is, on the positive side of what I call “the Z axis,” is a restoration of government back to the people. It’s opposite is oligarchy, plutocracy, rule by corporations, big tech, industry lobbies and the very wealthy.
Third Parties
Many people get very emotional about voting. They feel threatened by third parties. After all, a strong third party candidate can throw off a general election. And that is true. Are you old enough to remember when the Texas billionaire, Ross Perot, almost won the presidency as he introduced a new political party, the Reform Party, in 1992? I am. He withdrew precisely because he did not want the sort of post-election debacle that we have been seeing since 2020. But what concerns most people is that a vote for a third party candidate is a vote against their favored candidate. They have the mindset that every vote matters and must be counted.
In reality, no election was ever won by just one vote. So, as I see it, it is a false dilemma to believe that we must choose between the lesser of two evils. We don’t “waste” our vote if we choose a third party. Quite the opposite. We make the only good use of our vote that we can. We express our point of view. We make our opinion known. We bring attention to people who have different ideas and let it be known that we agree with them. What represents what you think more? Choosing a candidate you disagree with and don’t like, or actually stating your opinion by voting for someone you truly believe in? The only way you can throw away your vote, is by doing something that will make no difference – which is to pretend that your one vote will be the tie breaker. That is something that has simply never happened before and most probably never will. You always win if you vote for the third party candidate of your choice.
So, there is my opinion. I strongly encourage third party voting. And if there aren’t even any third parties you agree with, feel free to write in a name, or run for president yourself, like I did. Carl Milsted Jr., from whom I have learned much, published a manual on how to start a political party. This is highly recommended reading and I encourage you to start one so you can do a very American thing – express your opinion by participating in the political process. You can follow my lead and write your own political party manifesto, as well. Here’s the link to Carl’s book. It’s not surprisingly titled, “Business Plan for a New Political Party.” Enjoy.