Nick Gillespie & Matt Welch Talk to Politico About The Declaration of Independents
Earlier today, Matt Welch and I talked with David Mark of Politico about our new book, how to effect political change, the role of the Tea Party, and, naturally, Bert Blyleven's undeserving but incredibly relevant entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Click above to watch the 10 minute Q&A or check it out at Politico's site by going here.
From the writeup:
The "Declaration of Independents" authors – editors of Reason magazine and its websites, Reason.com and Reason.tv – prescribe a wholesale turn away from partisan politics. They cite several private sector examples of citizens creating their own solutions outside of the traditional political system.
Baseball fans, for example, may recall Bert Blyleven, a solid and durable major league pitcher from 1970 to 1992. Hall of Fame baseball writers shunned Blyleven for years, never giving him more than 30 percent of their votes (75 percent are needed for entry to the baseball shrine.)
Then a California investment manager, Rich Lederer, took up Blyleven's cause.
"By penning a series of convincing articles and debating individual voting writers (face-to-face, in many cases), this outside dabbler pulled off the unthinkable: he changed a doomed candidate into a 2011 inductee into the Hall of Fame," Gillespie and Welch write.
"It shows that you can move around the traditional gatekeepers and centers of power," Welch said.