It is becoming increasingly clear that the People no longer believe that the two major parties, the Republicans and Democrats, can act in a bi-partisan way to reverse the current trend toward America’s financial insolvency, and its associated degradation of our healthcare system, our national employment prospects and infrastructural disrepair.

People are disenchanted with the two major parties and know – with viscerally force – there is a need for a third major party in America.

There is a world of difference between the creation of a third major party and simply building another third party. There are many valid third parties out there, and they are usually based around one or two issues.

A third major party in America, however, would have a much broader base and range –

It would be the home for America’s independents. The two major parties are well-established and well-funded, of course, and the idea of a new third major party is frightening to many.

A third major party should be a vehicle for a populist major candidate to use to speak directly to the American people, unencumbered by typical “Party Platforms” that box candidates into speaking the ‘party line’ regarding social issues and hot-button topics.

An independent third major party will be for those who do not agree with the concept of a party platform that encourages candidates to take an unwavering position — a partisan stand – on social issues that displaces millions of moderate voters who want to change the culture in Washington. If the extremes rule the day, true independents know that reasonable discourse, problem solving and compromise will not possible.

But let’s be reasonable with the entire concept of building a new major party in America.  People have opinions.  People have strong opinions on a host of issues, and it is those very ideas that often bring people together to organize and fight for their rights and unique agendas.

I strongly believe that our American form of democracy, the greatest in the world, can rationalize the need to engage in spirited debate and still find common ground without causing the kind of gridlock caused major party extremism.

The country, is after all, a big tent of ideas, innovations and competing visions. A truly independent could speak to all sides; find compromise and hit the right tone for the American people.

We can have a left-right-center coalition of independent organizations throughout the country that in the spirit of breaking the current dysfunction in Washington, band together behind a new independent prototype for leadership.

In other words, independents in New York may have different priorities or social views than self-described independents in Illinois, Minnesota, California, but we can band together in the spirit of applying common sense solutions to addressing the nation’s problems.  We can band together in the spirit of fostering competent and innovative leadership in Washington – just as we have witnessed centuries of American ingenuity applied to technology, inventiveness and business.  We can fix the dysfunction.

But party building is a process.  Building a new major party in America will take hard work, but most importantly, it will take commitment and it will take the work of savvy political operatives to pull it together.

“Any Government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse.” (wise words from Franklin D. Roosevelt)