Unity 2020

[lpetrich]

Unity2020 - A Plan to Save Our Republic -- is it a joke? It would have the same problem that Kanye West has been facing: being very close to filing deadlines, if not already past them.

Not Trump. Not Biden.

#Unity2020 is a grassroots presidential campaign to restore patriotic, courageous & capable leadership to the United States.

The Vision - Unity2020 - instead of Trump and Biden,

Now imagine instead that a courageous, competent pair of patriots take the stage — a team not beholden to any party, nor beset by conflicts of interest. A team driven to build a future where our national vision is clear, our plan is wise and — for the first time — every American is fully included.

...
Our two dominant political parties are entirely consumed by partisan politics and are clearly uninterested in serious solutions to an ever-expanding list of problems they had a powerful hand in creating. More disturbingly, the tools we might use to remedy this situation, tools granted us by our founding documents, appear to have been dulled to the point of uselessness by the major parties — parties which, in those brilliant blueprints, are nowhere mentioned.

The Constitution does not make ANY mention of political parties, and its creators did not like political parties very much The Founding Fathers Feared Political Factions Would Tear the Nation Apart - HISTORY

We the people draft two candidates: one from the center-left, one from the center-right.

Once elected, they agree to govern as a team. All decisions and appointments will be made jointly in the interests of the American public. Only when they cannot reach agreement, or when a decision does not allow for consultation, does the President decide independently. A coin flip determines which candidate runs at the top of the ticket.

...
The ideal candidates will fulfill three criteria

1. They must be patriotic
2. They must be highly capable
3. They must be courageous

The Unity 2020 people seem confident that they can get the votes of self-styled Independents. But they have the same problem that the People's Party people have: what makes they think that they can get the support of people turned off by politicians?

The People's Party is vague about what races it will run its candidates in, though it will apparently be a lot more than the Presidency. Unity 2020 is worse - it only focuses on the Presidency.

 

[lpetrich]

News - Unity2020

Complaining that Unity 2020 has been banned from Twitter.

Thursday night, Articles of Unity supporters began trending globally on Twitter by using the hashtag #JustSayNoToDonaldAndJoe during Donald Trump’s RNC speech.

Then, yesterday, Twitter suspended the Articles of Unity account indefinitely. What’s worse, they have banned users from even sharing a link to ArticlesOfUnity.org.

It’s clear the establishment does not want this message of Unity to spread.

I think that Twitter's bot detectors were triggered by the behavior of Unity 2020's supporters.

Their candidates:

• Dan Crenshaw -- R-TX-02 -- Right
• Tulsi Gabbard -- D-HI-02 -- Left
• William McRaven -- US Navy Admiral -- Right
• Jesse Ventura -- fmr MN Gov -- Left
• Andrew Yang -- fmr 2020 Dem Pres cand -- Left
• John “Jocko” Willink -- US Navy Lt Cmdr -- Right

Why Unity2020 is spoiler-proof - Unity2020

First, our plan is carefully designed to draw equally from disillusioned voters in both political parties.

If you take the number of voters who self-identify as “independent,” and then add all the potential voters who are currently disengaged from the election process altogether, we could create a voting bloc representing as much as eighty-six percent (86%) of the country.

Second, if it becomes clear our Unity2020 ticket has no viable path to the White House by a predetermined date, we will pull the plug and all voters can return to their previous corners.

The 2020 general election is a little more than 2 months away, and that is not much time for building a campaign.

 

[lpetrich]

There is also the question of what will happen after the election. It is 4 years to wait until 2024, and what will the Unity 2020 people do until then?

There is also a glaring omission: Congress.

Will the Unity 2020 people start focusing on Congressional races? State and local ones? There's more to the US Gov't than the Presidency.

Let's see.

After Amy Vilela lost the 2018 D-NV-04 primary, she got involved in a PAC called Matriarch, for electing Congresspeople.

After Katie Hill resigned in disgrace from the House in 2019, she created a PAC called HER time, for electing Congresspeople.

After Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang lost the Dem 2020 Pres primaries, they started endorsing candidates for Congress. AY even has an organization for doing so, Humanity Forward, an organization that also pushes universal basic income.

 

[lpetrich]

Articles of Unity - YouTube

I watched several of the videos there -- still President-only.

Back to the Unity 2020 news.

We will be announcing our platform for safe and secure online voting for the Unity primary SOON. Sign up today and advocate for your preferred candidates from the left and right to help build support in advance of the vote!

That's NOT going to be in time to get on the ballots of most states -- a problem that goes totally unmentioned.


It seems like the mastermind of Unity 2020 is a certain Bret Weinstein, someone at Bret Weinstein - YouTube and  Bret Weinstein and Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) / Twitter

In his YouTube channel are some full-length videos of discussions related to Unity 2020 -- the Unity 2020 YT channel has some clips from them but not anything full-length.

 

[Rhea]

It’s utter anarchistic bullshit, IMHO.

Our two dominant political parties are entirely consumed by partisan politics and are clearly uninterested in serious solutions to an ever-expanding list of problems they had a powerful hand in creating.

The ideal candidates will fulfill three criteria

1. They must be patriotic
2. They must be highly capable
3. They must be courageous

Once again with the “tear everything down, both parties are just as bad” bullshit that helps only one side - the radical right.

I’ve got no cheers for a group of people that want to undermine and tear down the only bulwark we currently have against the fascist right. Bullshit. Nope, nope all the nope. You are NOT peddling progressive views here, Unity. I see you.

The Unity 2020 people seem confident that they can get the votes of self-styled Independents.

Remember that half the “independents” are such because the GOP is too liberal for them.

But they have the same problem that the People's Party people have: what makes they think that they can get the support of people turned off by politicians?

The People's Party is vague about what races it will run its candidates in, though it will apparently be a lot more than the Presidency. Unity 2020 is worse - it only focuses on the Presidency.

Yup. Looking at what they are actually doing - it’s an arm of the GOP and nothing more. Maybe an arm of Putin, who just wants to tar it all down. This would assist him.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Articles of Unity - YouTube

I watched several of the videos there -- still President-only.

Back to the Unity 2020 news.

We will be announcing our platform for safe and secure online voting for the Unity primary SOON. Sign up today and advocate for your preferred candidates from the left and right to help build support in advance of the vote!

That's NOT going to be in time to get on the ballots of most states -- a problem that goes totally unmentioned.


It seems like the mastermind of Unity 2020 is a certain Bret Weinstein, someone at Bret Weinstein - YouTube and  Bret Weinstein and Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) / Twitter

In his YouTube channel are some full-length videos of discussions related to Unity 2020 -- the Unity 2020 YT channel has some clips from them but not anything full-length.

It's a bullshit group. I spent hours listening to Weinstein on the Joe Rogan show. This is so transparent. I've listened to several of the others also including Tulsi. They are not deep thinkers and do not have the best intentions. And they're tools. The republicans prop them up and are promoting this. Obviously there's no way they can run a viable candidate for 2020. They are only there to confuse, sow doubt on the left, and help trump.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

News - Unity2020

Complaining that Unity 2020 has been banned from Twitter.

Thursday night, Articles of Unity supporters began trending globally on Twitter by using the hashtag #JustSayNoToDonaldAndJoe during Donald Trump’s RNC speech.

Then, yesterday, Twitter suspended the Articles of Unity account indefinitely. What’s worse, they have banned users from even sharing a link to ArticlesOfUnity.org.

It’s clear the establishment does not want this message of Unity to spread.

I think that Twitter's bot detectors were triggered by the behavior of Unity 2020's supporters.

If their bot detectors were triggered to that degree they might have good reason--that the support is bots. This is probably another attempt to split the left-wing vote.

 

[Terrell]

If Unity wanted me to take it seriously they'd have started 2 years ago, and focused on down-ballot races. Show me you have the ability to win state wide elections & effectively govern.

 

[lpetrich]

If Unity wanted me to take it seriously they'd have started 2 years ago, and focused on down-ballot races. Show me you have the ability to win state wide elections & effectively govern.

I agree. I've been researching Unity 2020 and Bret Weinstein some more, and I still can't find out anything about Congress or lower levels of gov't. I might have to listen to some of the Campfire Chats, but I doubt that I'd find out much more in them either.

Bret Weinstein's complaint:
Bret Weinstein on Twitter: "Twitter suspended #Unity2020's account for amplifying #JustSayNoToDonaldAndJoe as President Trump was accepting the Republican Party's nomination. Pull back the curtain and see how we got here: vague rules and selective enforcement are the duopoly's best defense. Heads up, @jack https://t.co/3keTii9IVJ" / Twitter

Looks like the Unity account was spamming #JustSayNoToDonaldAndJoe in its posts.

Rick Sperling on Twitter: "#JustSayNoToDonaldAndJoe is a Russian Bot Scam to suppress Biden votes. What do the top accounts supporting this “unity” have in common? All joined Twitter in August, 2020. What a coincident? https://t.co/Lfi2twJfjI" / Twitter

Showing:
Tweet4Unity, em dash (EmmalineDash), moderate pdx for unity #Unity2020 (PdxUnity), Spiritual Unity 2020 (Unity2020Spirit)

 

[lpetrich]

Bret Weinstein on Twitter: "At tonight's #Unity2020 campfire we announced the target of our draft. Congratulations to Tulsi Gabbard / Dan Crenshaw, who won our ranked choice vote! Second place went to Andrew Yang / William McRaven.
Thanks Unity voters!
Ballot access plan Tuesday. https://t.co/48pFPs4IVS" / Twitter - 2020 Aug 31

Help us choose among our top six candidates - Unity2020

Dan Crenshaw, Tulsi Gabbard, William McRaven, Jesse Ventura, Andrew Yang, John “Jocko” Willink

Primary results announced - Unity2020 - the vote was an instant runoff vote for all pairs of candidates, 3 from the left, and 3 from the right.

Winner: Tulsi Gabbard, Dan Crenshaw
Runner-up: Andrew Yang, William McRaven

"Given sufficient groundswell of support for our candidates, our plan would give us ballot access in all 50 states. It does not require us to meet filing deadlines. And it does not require write-in candidates."

Except that every filing deadline has now passed - Filing deadlines for independent Presidential candidates 2020

 

[lpetrich]

Our path to ballot access in all 50 states - Unity2020

Bret Weinstein proposed teaming up with the Green Party or the Libertarian Party, two parties whose Presidential candidates are already on most states' ballots.

He said that it would be a great sacrifice for that partner party to support the Unity Party's candidates instead of theirs, but he then said that sacrifice is an important part of patriotism. I don't see how he thinks that that can get anywhere. Neither party will appreciate a "party" without a platform or a "party" that only got its candidates at the last of the states' filing deadlines.

Unity Campfire #8: Bret Weinstein with Melissa Chen and Matt Taibbi 09/01/20 - YouTube

Matt Taibbi is a journalist at Rolling Stone, and that's why I took the trouble to listen to that. Melissa Chen is another journalist, at Spectator USA.

I wasn't very impressed. Like feeling persecuted by Twitter, even though BW seemed to acknowledge that some Unity activists' promotion of certain hashtags was very spammy. Also talked about cross-party congeniality in Congress of half a century ago. There wasn't *any* talk about Congress or state offices or local offices. They seemed to think that the Greens and/or the Libertarians would be willing to drop their candidates and support the Unity ones. Failing that, they hoped to get their candidates on the ballots of smaller, regional parties -- and to get support from enough of them to cover the nation.

Between the People's Party and this "party", give me the People's Party, and QUICKLY.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Our path to ballot access in all 50 states - Unity2020

Bret Weinstein proposed teaming up with the Green Party or the Libertarian Party, two parties whose Presidential candidates are already on most states' ballots.

He said that it would be a great sacrifice for that partner party to support the Unity Party's candidates instead of theirs, but he then said that sacrifice is an important part of patriotism. I don't see how he thinks that that can get anywhere. Neither party will appreciate a "party" without a platform or a "party" that only got its candidates at the last of the states' filing deadlines.

Unity Campfire #8: Bret Weinstein with Melissa Chen and Matt Taibbi 09/01/20 - YouTube

Matt Taibbi is a journalist at Rolling Stone, and that's why I took the trouble to listen to that. Melissa Chen is another journalist, at Spectator USA.

I wasn't very impressed. Like feeling persecuted by Twitter, even though BW seemed to acknowledge that some Unity activists' promotion of certain hashtags was very spammy. Also talked about cross-party congeniality in Congress of half a century ago. There wasn't *any* talk about Congress or state offices or local offices. They seemed to think that the Greens and/or the Libertarians would be willing to drop their candidates and support the Unity ones. Failing that, they hoped to get their candidates on the ballots of smaller, regional parties -- and to get support from enough of them to cover the nation.

Between the People's Party and this "party", give me the People's Party, and QUICKLY.

I really hate Weinstein and Tulsi! They are both completely empty suits. But they are agitators. And their target is Biden (and democrats in general). I have far more respect for Trump and his allies. Trump and the republicans have different ideas that I do. But they are upfront about it. They have an agenda and they want to beat the democrats. Weinstein and Tulsi are trying to appeal to the fears that all of us have that the system is fucked up. And it is. But they are so dishonest in trying to be in the middle. All that they want to is to hurt the dems and wreck the system so that Trump can win. They deserve zero respect.

 

[lpetrich]

Suspending Unity2020—and launching a movement - Unity2020

When we announced this plan, we promised to avoid playing the role of the spoiler. We said that if the Unity ticket did not have a viable path to the White House, we would suspend Unity2020. Tonight, we are carrying through on that promise. We do this with considerable trepidation, knowing that the danger has not passed but instead has grown as the election nears. Nonetheless, we are confident that this is the wise course.

That's remarkably decency, acknowledging that they could not continue with their campaign.

But what that statement does not contain is revealing. No mention of their draft candidates Tulsi Gabbard or Dan Crenshaw, almost as if they had no success in recruiting either one of those two. Also no mention of trying to convince some existing party's leadership to support Unity's candidates instead of theirs.

As to launching a movement, what will it do? Will it try to found a new party? Will it instead act like Brand New Congress and run candidates in the two major parties?

FAQ - Unity2020 - I looked in the entries, and the only public office mentioned was the Presidency. No mention of Congress or state offices or local offices.

 

[lpetrich]

Unity 2020 Discussions - Unity 2020 discussions platform - I searched it for anything possibly interesting, and I found:

So unity2020 is suspended - General Discussion - Unity 2020 Discussions

Good question Griffin. I never knew how they ever expected to get a ground swell from Twitter. (42 million users in USA). The candidates never accepted the positions so they can’t speak up and campaign for themselves or debate anyone. You can’t expect the Green and Libertarian parties to allow a free ride on their tickets. Their bases spent a lot of time and money to get on the ballot. They have their own totally different platforms too. I could not sell anyone on Unity2020. People want to see and hear the candidates on TV.

Unity needs to get its own ballot access, just like the Peoples Party plans to do.

I’ll continue to vote Libertarian. I want to see someone stand up to the Military Industrial Complex and stop the never ending wars and the low level war on drugs (Brianna Taylor)

Good that he described Unity2020's failures in that forum.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Unity 2020 Discussions - Unity 2020 discussions platform - I searched it for anything possibly interesting, and I found:

So unity2020 is suspended - General Discussion - Unity 2020 Discussions

Good question Griffin. I never knew how they ever expected to get a ground swell from Twitter. (42 million users in USA). The candidates never accepted the positions so they can’t speak up and campaign for themselves or debate anyone. You can’t expect the Green and Libertarian parties to allow a free ride on their tickets. Their bases spent a lot of time and money to get on the ballot. They have their own totally different platforms too. I could not sell anyone on Unity2020. People want to see and hear the candidates on TV.

Unity needs to get its own ballot access, just like the Peoples Party plans to do.

I’ll continue to vote Libertarian. I want to see someone stand up to the Military Industrial Complex and stop the never ending wars and the low level war on drugs (Brianna Taylor)

Good that he described Unity2020's failures in that forum.

Yes, I'm not surprised. I heard that the republican party is having money problems. They probably cut the unity party off.

 

[lpetrich]

I checked back and I looked for what they were discussing inUnity 2020 Discussions - Unity 2020 discussions platform

Latest Unity Chapters topics - Unity 2020 Discussions - not much activity over the last month.

This is very recent: Amash/ Gabbard 2024 - Candidates / Discuss: Tulsi Gabbard - Unity 2020 Discussions

Most of the discussion in Latest Candidates topics - Unity 2020 Discussions is much less recent, however. Only some of the candidates for President, like Dan Crenshaw and Tulsi Gabbard.

Latest General Discussion topics - Unity 2020 Discussions - plenty of recent activity, though it seems rather limited. I didn't come across any discussions of Congress or Congresspeople. The only office mentioned was the Presidency.

 

[lpetrich]

Sam Harris Leaves the IDW - General Discussion - Unity 2020 Discussions - the Intellectual Dark Web

bmarshall603:
... I couldn’t be happier about this. I found him to be an obnoxious moronic jackass who is taken way too seriously. Part of this is because I’m a former preacher and his superficial hollow attacks on Christianity have been kind of offensive but he’s also not that original and has been exposed as very arrogant and intellectually shallow by people like William Lane Craig and members of the IDW like Douglas Murray, Jordan Peterson, and Ben Shapiro.

... Apparently, the reason he left was that he didn’t want to be associated with people who support Trump, and the reason he didn’t support Trump from what I can tell, wasn’t for any intellectual or worthwhile reason but again because he’s an arrogant jackass and like my cousin told me “an establishment shill.”

Omnifarious:
I was finding his reaction to people who supported Trump to be very off-putting. If he can’t find common ground there, he doesn’t belong.

bmarshall603:
Ya, what’s really frustrating to me right now is how people like Sam Harris and many others are just dismissing people who voted for Trump as either stupid or racist and they don’t even try to have a meaningful conversation about why people support him.