.WhoWeAre
Senior Advisors
Steve Goldsmith, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio
Lou Holtz, Hall-of-Fame College Football Coach
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is American Solutions?
A. American Solutions for Winning the Future is a non-partisan organization designed to rise above traditional gridlocked partisanship to provide real, significant solutions to the most important issues facing our country. Its General Chairman is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
For more information about American Solutions and why we exist, click here to read a welcome letter from Speaker Gingrich.
Click here for an 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 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 2007.
Q. What is Solutions Day?
A. Solutions Day is an annual event to inform, connect, and mobilize citizen leaders to help win America's future. The theme of Solutions Day 2008 was "We Have the Power" and focused on providing citizens with the tools, knowledge, and training needed to transform government at all levels--from school boards and city councils to state legislatures and Congress.
Click here for workshops on the economy, energy, education, and health from the second annual 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. 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.
Our hope is that both political parties will use the "Platform of the American People" as a positive blueprint that unites the American people before turning to divisive issues which polarize people into separate camps.
Q. What is the methodology behind the research data in the Platform of the American People?
A. In 2007, American Solutions sponsored six nationwide telephone surveys to probe Americans’ views on a variety of issues. Click here for the survey topics, polling firm, sample sizes, fielding dates, and margins of error for the six nationwide polls.
Q. When did the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” movement begin?
A. American Solutions started the “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” petition on May 20, 2008. In less than 30 days, we collected over one million signatures and were widely credited with ignited the national energy debate over domestic drilling. Click here to learn more about the petition drive.
Click here for more FAQ’s