.WhoWeAre
Q. What is American Solutions?
A. American Solutions for Winning the Future is a new, non-partisan organization built around three goals: to defend America and our allies abroad and defeat our enemies, to strengthen and revitalize America’s core values, and to move government into the 21st Century. The General Chairman is former Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Our mission is to become the leading grassroots movement to recruit, educate, and empower citizen activists and elected officials to develop solutions to transform all levels of government.
Click here for an in-depth explanation of the values and principles of the American Solutions movement.
Q. When was American Solutions founded?
A. The American Solutions movement was officially launched with an opening presentation on September 27, 2007 before a standing-room only crowd at the Cobb Galleria Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Then, on September 29, 2007, American Solutions held more than 2,000 workshops in all 50 states during the inaugural Solutions Day. Click here (pdf) for a more detailed summary of Solutions Day 2007. And click here for webcasts from Solutions Day.
Q. Why are you doing this?
A. The American people are tired of Red vs. Blue partisan bickering and want to create a Red, White, and Blue country. American Solutions is designed to rise above traditional gridlocked partisanship, to provide real, significant solutions to the most important issues facing our country. Yet, the current political governmental system has four major flaws which block it from developing the kind of solutions we need.
First, it is dominated by daily headlines, a focus on the negative, fights rather than discussions, and sound bites and commercials so short they can't communicate anything complex or positive.
Second, the old system simply does not have the ideas and techniques for being successful. Today's politicians are trapped in old ideas, old interest groups, and old bureaucracies that simply do not have the tools for solving America's problems.
Third, consultants dominate the current system, and they are essentially technicians with very limited knowledge of fundamental issues and historic lessons. So they tend to reduce the system to clever commercials and fancy fundraising gimmicks.
Fourth, the current system focuses on the Oval Office, yet there are 513,000 elected officials in America, from school board to city council to county commission to state legislature. Real solutions have to move through all these offices, not merely the White House.
Q. Specifically, what does American Solutions do that is different or better than other approaches?
A. Our solutions are different and better because we speak to the whole country. This is not a base approach. It is designed to speak to traditional and non-traditional audiences alike. This is a Red, White, and Blue approach, designed first-and-foremost to promote the values and beliefs of the entire country. These beliefs are outlined in the “Platform of the American People.”
Q. What is the “Platform of the American People”?
A. The “Platform of the American People” is a set of deeply held ideas that are supported by an overwhelming majority of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. All of the issues in the Platform are taken from six nationwide polls American Solutions recently conducted on the following policy areas: English Language and American Civilization; Immigration, the Border and Assimilation; Science and Technology; Energy and the Environment; Taxes and Jobs; Social Security and Retirement; Freedom of Religion; and Defending America. Click here for the methodology behind the six nationwide surveys.
Our hope is that beginning with local conventions up through district, state and the national conventions both political parties will consider adopting the "Platform of the American People" as a foundation that unites us, before turning to divisive issues which polarize people into separate camps.
Q. Who are you trying to reach?
A. There are 513,000 local, state, and federal elected officials in America. There are candidates for these offices, incumbents in these offices, and staffs sustaining these offices. There are reporters, analysts and scholars who attempt to cover these 513,000 offices. Most if not all would have to be part of a movement for American Solutions to help win the future.
In addition, there are millions engaged as volunteers in non governmental organizations. They can also bring a great deal to bear on developing new solutions and helping implement solutions.
Finally, we have shared, and will continue to share, the ideas and research we are developing with all the Presidential candidates in both parties.
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