Introducing the Purple Party

New York Magazine, April 24, 2006 issue:

Depressed about the Democrats? Revolted by the Republicans? You’re not alone. Here in New York (with its Republican mayor and Democratic voters), a third way is being plotted. Follow the purple-brick road.....

Less than a third of the electorate are happy to call themselves Republicans, and only a bit more say they’re Democrats—but between 33 and 39 percent now consider themselves neither Democrat nor Republican. In other words, there are more of us than there are of either of them....We are people without a party. We open-minded, openhearted moderates are alienated from the two big parties because backward-looking ideologues and p.c. hypocrites are effectively in charge of both. Both are under the sway of old-school clods who consistently default to government intrusion where it doesn’t belong....Both line up to reject sensible, carefully negotiated international treaties when there’s too much sacrifice involved and their special-interest sugar daddies object—the Kyoto Protocol for the Republicans, the Central American Free Trade Agreement for the Democrats....

More in same issue:

But Is a Third Party Possible?

By Ryan Lizza

Don’t look now, but factors like fund-raising on the Net and a new tribe of activist billionaires make a third party more possible than it has been in decades.

Building the Frankencandidate

By John Heilemann

Jon Stewart and everyone else knows the two-party system and its denizens are hopelessly, comically broken. And the condition is probably terminal. So how to breathe life back into politics? With a new kind of candidate, someone we haven’t met, but who seems strangely familiar.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Next President and Vice President . . .

(Not necessarily in that order) To create the perfect Purple Party people, we ran some of those listed on these pages through the computer, and these are the ones the machine came up with. They’re not gorgeous—but would you trust them if they were?

with a severe case of fundamentalist atheist jihadism (i.e., those who like to cry that "religion has caused all the evil in the world"):

Review, New York Times, April 21:

The World' s Spiritual Awakening, From Gods to God;

By William Grimes

Excerpts from review:

...."The Great Transformation" looks far into the past. It begins with the first stirrings of religious consciousness, about 3,500 years ago among the Aryans of the southern Russian steppes, that would eventually lead humanity from nature worship and sacrifice to an inward-looking, self-critical and compassionate approach to life.

This transformation occurred independently in four different regions during the Axial Age, a pivotal period lasting from 900 B.C. to 200 B.C., producing Taoism and Confucianism in China, Buddhism and Hinduism in India, Judaism in the Middle East and philosophic rationalism in Greece....

The gradual elimination of violence from religion is one of Ms. Armstrong's great themes. In India priests in the ninth century B.C. had revised the sacrificial rituals to purge them of any practices likely to lead to violence, paving the way toward the guiding Axial concept of harmlessness. In China the concept of the ideal ruler changed from a warrior wielding magical powers to a serene, wise ruler whose "daode," or royal potency, "brought spiritual benefit to the people."

Ms. Armstrong tells a hopeful story. The Axial sages move humankind from a religious worldview mired in tribal loyalty and self-interest to an expansive spirituality that takes account of others. In writing of the Jains, circa 530 B.C. to 450 B.C., she writes, "The new ideal was no longer merely to refrain from violence, but to cultivate a tenderness and sympathy that had no bounds."

Greece is the great exception. At a time when the Hebrew prophets were preaching monotheism, Greece opted for polytheism....

that the U.S. is not the only one "on Israel's side:"

April 26, 2006

Russia Helps Israel Keep an Eye on Iran

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSCOW, April 25 — Russia launched a satellite for Israel on Tuesday that the Israelis say will be used to monitor Iran's nuclear activities.

The Eros B satellite was launched from Svobodny, in eastern Russia, said Aleksei Kuznetsov, a spokesman for the Russian space forces. The Itar-Tass news agency in Russia and Channel 10 television in Israel reported that the launching was successful.

The satellite is intended to help Israel gather information on Iran's nuclear program and its long-range missiles, which are capable of striking Israel, said an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity....