The far right and far left are holding America hostage—becoming ever more strident, uncompromising and making governance impossible. They are small in number but drive the national agenda because they are organized, because they vote, contribute to and volunteer for campaigns. In short, they show up, while the vast political center has remained on the sidelines.
No Labels is a movement for the tens of millions of Americans who are fed up with the dysfunction and will no longer put up with a government that does not represent the interests of most Americans.
There is no shortage of ideas to fix Washington and our politics. Campaign finance reform. Gerrymandering. Forming a third party. But these are tough, multiyear, state-by-state slogs with uncertain odds of success. And America can’t afford to wait.
With The Speaker Project, No Labels has launched a campaign that can radically change the way Congress works in a matter of months, and in so doing, restore our Congress to the deliberative, solutions-oriented body our Founding Fathers intended.
In 2017, No Labels inspired the creation of the House Problem Solvers Caucus—featuring 48 members evenly divided between the parties—who in the last year aligned behind ambitious bipartisan proposals on healthcare reform, immigration and border security, infrastructure and gun safety.
That’s a big deal.
But none of these proposals received a vote on the House floor, because House rules—some that give a speaker too much power, others that empower extreme elements in both parties—make it virtually impossible.
The Speaker Project begins with the premise that no real change will come to Washington until we elect a different kind of speaker and change congressional rules in a way that forces the body to be responsive to the will of the American people. And the election of the next Speaker, in January 2019, provides an opening to do it.
Moderate lawmakers in both parties believe their influence will rise after the midterm elections no matter which party takes control of the House.
During Republicans’ unilateral push to replace Obamacare with a flimsier system, they insisted that they were on a rescue mission to save a collapsing policy the Democrats had forced on the country. In reality, Obamacare was not the disaster they described, and their plans to replace it would have been far worse for needy people.
Congress would be more bipartisan if the minority party had a say in the selection.
For too long the political center in America has been left for dead. But not anymore. Join the fight.