Why Americans Elect Won't Amount to Much

A recent Time magazine commentary (Indie Block) discusses why the third-party presidential nominating organization Americans Elect (AE) has not made the splash that was hoped when it announced its intention last July to nominate a centrist candidate in all 50 states using a web-based, non-partisan nominating process. The commentary claims that AE's lackluster performance is due to a lack of differentiation, as there are already 2 centrists in Romney and Obama, and that the 2 parties are actually talking about the issues that polls indicate matter to voters, so there's not enough frustration to give AE some wind. Beyond the nauseating apologist deference toward the duopoly, the article also has the wrong diagnosis. 

The reasons that AE is not successful are two-fold:

1. Lack of transparency. AE will not reveal its donor list, claiming its to protect donors from retribution by duopoly agents. No doubt there's a possibility of retribution, but it still leaves one wondering if this not another front group like MoveOn.org. That fact that both MoveOn and AE are organized with top-down structures further paints AE as more a co-opter rather than a co-revolter.

2. Playing by the rules instead of changing them. AE has the mula to overcome the inherent barriers to ballot access instituted by the duopoly, and that is the main reason it has gotten as far as it has. Instead of questioning these laws (it could use its funds to challenge ballot access laws in court instead of spending its way past them), AE just wants to expand the duopoly to a triopoly. No wonder folks are not biting.

The fact that even insiders are disgusted enough with the duopoly to attempt something like AE is a symptom of system ripe for change, but its strategy only reifies a dying structure.