Had enough yet

[Lee Chowaniec]

Americans say they are following the news less, but are they?

Hearing from numerous individuals who say they are tired of reading of the terrible world news reports and becoming depressed / stressed out to the point of not caring any more because they have little say in the matter, they claim to be reading / listening to media reports – if at all.

But is that claim true or simply frustration at a system that is broken where political compromise is no longer possible in the best interests of the public; where two old guys are reportedly declaring interest in seeking a 2024 presidential re-run and both pollical party voters are wishing otherwise; where 90% of the country declares the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The following reports that the Reuters Institute revealed last month that 42% of Americans actively avoid the news at least some of the time because it grinds them down or they just don’t believe it. Fifteen percent said they disconnected from news coverage altogether.

Broken and distrusting: why Americans are pulling away from the daily news

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...74081affaefe9f

“In the United States, those who self-identify on the right are far more likely to avoid news because they think it is untrustworthy or biased, but those on the left are more likely to feel overwhelmed, carry feelings of powerlessness, or worry that the news might create arguments,” the institute said.

The Reuters Institute said that alongside the rising number of people avoiding news is a drop in trust in reporting in the US to the lowest point yet recorded at just 26% of the population.

And yet major longstanding news organizations are skeptical because their audience numbers just keep growing. Professor Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School, said that while there are short term peaks and troughs in engagement with the news around major events, the long-term trend is up.

Bell said that in recent years the total number of stories read by Americans has grown to be much larger than she would ever have imagined. “So I start from this position of, is this really happening? People say, ‘I’m sick of the news, I’m actually taking steps to avoid it or I’m not paying attention to it.’ While one has to take them at their word, statistically I would like to see a bit more evidence it’s actually true,” she said.

Bell also pointed out that although younger people may be turning away from traditional news sources that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re turning away from the news. “Podcasting has an incredibly strong, young audience. This is a long form storytelling format, which really appeals to the under-twenty-fives which I don’t think anybody could have predicted. A couple of years ago, I was teaching a group of undergraduates and they were largely uninterested in the basic output of the New York Times but if you mentioned Michael Barbara and The Daily podcast (the New York Times’s daily podcast) they got incredibly overexcited,” she said.

It’s possible Americans say they are turning away from some news because so much more is coming at them, but at the same time they still consume more than they ever did

[Lee Chowaniec]

Confidence in media at all-time low

It doesn’t take an Einstein to determine that the majority of Americans are suffering from the impacts of one crisis after another, where Biden’s 31% approval rating is at an all time low in the past 50 years, that 90% of the country believes the country is heading in the wrong, and where food pantries are overwhelmed by needy families.

It was not surprising to read that public confidence in the media to present the news without bias or opinion is at an all time low. The media by too often defending the defenseless is a main contributor to the divisiveness, violence, erosion of mores and law & order taking place in our country.

Gallup began tracking Americans’ confidence in newspapers in 1973, recording a majority who had confidence only once in 1979, and began tracking television news in 1993. A majority has never had confidence in television news since the first poll.

After reading / listening to today’s conflicting news reports the following makes perfect sense

Confidence in media at all-time low, 11% for TV news

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...962dbb4270dd4d

Confidence that TV and print news media are delivering trustworthy news has plummeted to the lowest level ever tallied by Gallup in nearly 50 years. The pollster said that those expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in print news is 16% and just 11% for TV news.

“Republicans' (5%) and independents' (12%) confidence in newspapers is the lowest on record for these party groups, while Democrats' (35%) has been lower in the past. Democrats' confidence in newspapers rose to the 42% to 46% range during the Donald Trump administration but fell when President Joe Biden took office,” said Gallup.

For TV, the results were worse. “This is the fourth consecutive year that confidence in TV news is below 20%. And for just the second time in the trend, a majority of Americans, 53%, now say they have very little or no confidence at all in TV news,” said Gallup.

Bias in the polarized nation might also play a role. A Pew study out last week said that left-leaning reporters are OK with bias while news consumers are not, for example.

The results are from the Gallup’s latest confidence rating of over a dozen American institutions. As low as the media sits, it isn’t the worst on the Gallup list. Sitting dead last is Congress, at 7%.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Back to the future?

Bravo! A new policy adopted this month by the Diocese of Green Bay requires all staff and students within the diocese to use pronouns and facilities consistent with their sex assigned at birth.

Educated 16 years in Catholic schools and enjoyed every day – the structure, mores, security. Those not wishing to comply with regulations established in private educational systems do not have to send their children. At the same time, I have evolved to offer no opinion on abortion as it did not impact my life. You do your thing, I’ll do mine!

Diocese issues new education policy requiring use of pronouns, bathrooms consistent with sex assigned at birth

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/di...a5e6588f341e28

[Lee Chowaniec]

Americans are hungry for change: A third party?

New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote the following today:

Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the way things are going. Only 13% of voters say the country is on the right track, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll published this week.

Americans are deeply dissatisfied with the leaders of both parties. Joe Biden has a 33% job approval rating among registered voters. About half of Republican voters want to move on from Donald Trump and find a new presidential candidate for 2024.

Inflation is soaring. Throughout history, inflationary periods have often been linked to political instability.

The generational turnover is coming. The boomer gerontocracy that now dominates power is bound to retire, leaving a vacuum for something new.

Americans are detaching from the two political parties. Far more Americans consider themselves independents than consider themselves either Democrats or Republicans, and independents may be growing more distinct. And there's some research that suggests independents are increasingly not just closeted members of the two main parties but also hold different beliefs, which puts them between parties. Sixty two percent of Americans believe a third party is needed.

Disgust with the current system is high. A majority of American voters believe that our system of government does not work, and 58% believe that our democracy needs major reforms or a complete overhaul. Nearly half of young adult voters believe voting does not affect how the government operates.

If ever there was a moment ripe for a Ross Perot-like third candidate in the 2024 general election, this is that moment. There are efforts underway to prepare the way for a third candidate, and in this environment, an outsider, with no ties to the status quo, who runs against the establishment and on the idea that we need to fundamentally fix the system - well, that person could wind up winning the presidency.

We used to think of the Democrats as the party of the economically disadvantaged. But college educated metropolitan voters continue to flock to it and reshape it more and more each year. In the Times/Siena poll of registered voters, 57% of white college graduates wanted Democrats to control Congress compared with 36% who favored Republican control. For the first time in the survey's history, Democrats had a larger share of support among white college graduates than among non-white voters. These white voters are often motivated by social policy issues like abortion rights and gun regulation.

Republicans used to be the party of business, but now they are emerging as a multiracial working-class party. In the Times/Siena poll, Hispanic voters were nearly evenly split about whether they favored Republicans or Democrats in the midterms. That may be overstating how much Hispanics have shifted, but it does seem as if the Republicans are genuinely becoming a working-class white-brown coalition. These voters care about the economy, the economy, and the economy. and an anti-establishment conservative party. This is not normal.

If I were a cynical political operative who wanted to construct a presidential candidate perfectly suited for this moment, I would start by making this candidate culturally conservative. I'd want the candidate to show by dress, speech, and style that he or she is not part of the coastal educated establishment. I'd want the candidate to connect with middle and working-class voters on values and to be full-throatedly patriotic.

Comment

As a lifelong non-affiliated registered voter, voting both Democrat or Republican based on lesser of two evils, Brooks’ column struck a chord regarding my hope that a third political party would become possible, and viable.

Ross Perot ran independent campaign in the 1992 U.S. presidential election and a third-party campaign in the 1996 U.S. presidential election as the nominee of the Reform Party, which was formed by grassroots supporters of Perot's 1992 campaign. Although he failed to carry a single state in either election, both campaigns were among the strongest presidential showings by a third party or independent candidate in U.S. history.

Perot failed in the 90’s at a time where the country was not as divided as it now is and where voters were not in sync in agreeing the country is headed in the wrong direction as today and are looking past both Biden and Trump as 2024 presidential candidates

Count me in if there is a real ‘moderate interested; one not influenced by extremists, the ‘woke’ crowd, or media propagandists. One interested in America’s best interests, not their own or the planned new World Order.


BTW – Will someone please tell me why Prince Harry was invited to speak before the United Nation assemblage. He admits not knowing anything about our constitution, but that didn’t stop that pissant from crapping all over our country. The U.S. contributes 20% to the UN’s operation and we approved of this ingrate's presence?

[Lee Chowaniec]

The economy is great declare Biden, his administration, and media lackeys

We are being told Biden’s policies are working and cause for celebrating and not fearing a likely recession. 372,000 new jobs were added in June. The labor market is strong and why people seem confident enough to quit their existing jobs and seek new opportunities, why they're spending so much and why prices are rising so fast.

Consumer spending has remained strong, even after adjusting for inflation. About a third of workers say they plan to quit their jobs this year, not usually a sign of low confidence in the economy.

On the other hand: Economic output – also known as gross domestic product (GDP) – shrank in the first quarter of this year, and some forecasts suggest it may have contracted again in the second quarter. Corporate profits fell earlier this year too, and stock markets have been trending downward.

Inflation reached yet another 40-year high in June, at 9.1% from a year earlier. Energy prices drove much of the increase, but nearly everything Americans buy has gotten much more expensive, including groceries and rent. This rising cost of living has been extremely painful, especially for low-income households. It's the main reason why consumer sentiment just notched its worst reading ever recorded.

While the Democrats are engaged in selling climate change, January 6th, the overturn of Roe, and gun control as ‘existential’ threats to our democracy and existence, polls indicate the economy, inflation, crime, and immigration far outweigh voter concerns.

66% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and are being forced to face higher cost of living expenses because of the cost of climate controls necessary to combat the future existential threat to our planet. An existential crisis exists today for the majority of Americans.

Is Biden lying to us? Can you trust the media to not post disinformation? Are we being played?

After blatant inflation lies, it is no wonder Biden's approval rating is in the toilet

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mark...f8cc211a6e5003

Joe Biden's administration has consistently lied and lied again to the American people about the economy. But none of those lies come close to their laughable statements on inflation.
The rapidly rising prices plaguing American families.

Apparently, they are either 'highly unlikely,' 'transitory,' 'temporary,' decelerating, and/or peaking.

Inflation was apparently a 'high-class problem', in the opinion of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain. He flippantly retweeted a Harvard economist who suggested inflation was only a concern for the wealthy, oblivious to the fact that the poor suffer the most when prices rise.

'We're seeing some inflation, but I don't believe it's permanent,' shrugged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last summer. 'I personally believe this represents transitory factors.'

Back in the real world, we are living through the highest inflation in 40 years and the economy is teetering on the brink of recession. The American people know this.
You literally have to have been asleep most of the last 18 months not to know this. Proving my point, just last week Biden stated that 'my economic plan is moving this country in a better direction.'

Year-over-year inflation now stands at 9.1 percent, which means if you're making the same amount of money as you were 12 months ago, then you've taken a 9.1 percent pay cut over the past year, courtesy of Joe Biden.

Bidenflation cost the average American household $718 in June alone and will cost that same family over $8,600 over the next year even if prices stop increasing altogether (which they won't).
Returning to reality once again, inflation will bounce around a bit, but it has not peaked for one painfully simple reason: the Biden Administration has no policies that will meaningfully slow it – for example, direct intervention to encourage businesses to increase the supply of goods, or a new drive on domestic energy production to lower gas prices.

On the contrary, Biden's economic policies got us into this mess. Now he's doing precisely nothing to get us out of it. And we are all paying the price.
Yes, there are factors beyond anyone's control that contributed to the dynamics that cause inflation.

The pandemic shut down production and strangled the flow of goods – restricting supply. But then Biden made it worse – far worse.

The data doesn't lie.

[Lee Chowaniec]

An overlooked source of global warming: all our stuff

Having often thought about the impact on global warming from sources outside of energy and automobile carbon footprints, I found the following report interesting and well worth the read.

An overlooked source of global warming: all our stuff

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mark...f239cd3a911f45

The vacation promised to be high in enjoyment and low in carbon. Rather than flying somewhere and staying in a hotel, we would sail to a cabin powered by solar electricity. Our only fossil-fuel use would involve a little propane to prepare meals.

In this carbon accounting, though, we had unwittingly cooked the books. Greenhouse gas emissions from our transportation and building use would be minimal, true. But what about the coolers of food and duffels of clothing, not to mention the boat itself?
It’s easy to overlook embodied energy — all the energy that goes into the production, transport and disposal — of the stuff we consume and use on a daily basis.

How does one account for the greenhouse gas impact of — say — a tube of sunscreen? It requires analyzing emissions throughout its life cycle, including the mining of mineral ingredients and extraction of fossil fuels used in the plastic container, the transport of raw materials and finished products, the manufacturing process and ultimately either its incineration or landfilling (since such tubes are not typically recycled).

Do those life cycle emissions amount to much? Not for a single tube of sunscreen, but for all that we consume nationally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 42 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions trace back to handling materials through their lifespan. Other estimates put that figure as high as 80 percent. Clearly, we need to better gauge how much consumption is driving global warming.

Other

Happy to hear you are doing fine President Biden. Even though you have screwed up our country pretty bad, where a low percentage from your own party want to see you run in 2024, many Americans shudder thinking who would replace you should you be unable to continue in office this term

[Lee Chowaniec]

Conundrums

Here are six Conundrums of socialism in the United States of America:

1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those socialist countries.

worth considering…

Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. But we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money! What is interesting is the first group "worked for" their money, but some of the second didn't.

Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military and cutting our army to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to undocumented immigrants.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Voters will have their say in November

Another day of reading and listening to political claptrap from politicians seeking office, political strategists and pundits, and a biased media spewing propaganda and disinformation.

A president with a 31% approval rating, where 86% of voters declare the country is heading in the wrong direction, where trust in the news and media is below 15%, where trust in an inept and dysfunctional government even less, we are now told that the gap between Republican and Democrat voters in the midterm election has narrowed to 1%. Goodbye big red wave!

Where the economy and a 9.1% inflation rate are foremost on voters’ minds, surging crime, an open border with drugs flowing into the country killing many Americans, surging rent and housing costs, and failed domestic and foreign policies, Democrats, the left and ‘woke’ are spinning the overturn of Roe, Trump and January 6th, gun violence, and gender identity as the real existential threats to America’s democracy and existence. Really? Voters are overwhelmingly saying their pocketbooks and free speech are the biggest threats to their wellbeing and democracy.

Biden is celebrating the 40-cent reduction in gas price. Blames the increase on Putin’s War. Yet when Biden took office in January 2021 gas in New York State was $2.35. In February 2022 it was $3.65. Reached $4.85 in June 2022, now around $4.45.

Under Biden NYS gas rose 106%, has come down 8% (40 cents) and is celebrating a victory gap as food, energy, housing, and household goods continue to rise. When even Democrats within Biden’s party are running away from his endorsement, do voters want more of the same?

Tired of the new normal BS? How good we have it? Yeah, me too!

Government creates the problems, the public complains, the government blames the public!

[Lee Chowaniec]

Hunter Biden: If it were a Trump

Equal justice under the law? LMAO!

Is the clock finally running out on Hunter Biden?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...576c77017e66b8

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin once said the key element of his life was “timing … I have been blessed to have been in the right place at the right time.” It is the same defining element of Hunter Biden’s life: No matter what crime or corruption is alleged, he has escaped responsibility, often by pure political serendipity.

When Hunter’s debaucheries and dealings became public knowledge, thanks to a laptop he abandoned at a repair shop, the timing again was right for him. It happened just before the 2020 presidential election, and the media imposed a virtual blackout on coverage; 51 intelligence experts wrote a letter dismissing the laptop as likely “Russian disinformation.” U.S. Attorney David Weiss, probing Hunter’s dealings under an appointment by then-Attorney General William Barr, suspended his grand jury investigation for months to avoid accusations of influencing the election.

Now the grand jury’s expiration last month has forced a new timeline in the Hunter saga. The grand jury reportedly looked at a variety of possible criminal charges stemming from Hunter’s reported influence-peddling with dubious foreign figures from China, Russia, Ukraine and other countries.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Biden’s ‘moment of economic truth’ comes due Friday

Biden’s economic policies are working, just ask him; or Yellen, or the lamestream media. Not to worry about a recession either. Disregard indices that forecast otherwise. We shall see Friday.

This 'progressive' stuff is really working. Is Biden is getting advice from Hunter, the smartest man he knows? Then again, somehow this must be Trump's fault, right?

CNN analysis: Biden facing 'moment of truth' this week with release of critical economic data

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-an...-economic-data

A CNN analysis said Monday that President Biden was facing a "moment of truth" this week with regard to the economy as multiple key economic reports are expected to come out this week.

"Every week is a tough week for this White House right now," CNN's Stephen Collinson and Simone Pathe wrote, adding that the reports on "US economic health and consumer prices" will "offer a glimpse of how bad things could get."

The analysis noted a CNN survey that found just 18% of Americans said the economy was in good shape. Since Biden’s administration called inflation transitory, U.S. has seen 13 straight months of soaring costs.

The Consumer Confidence Index, which shows consumer attitudes and expectations looking at the economy, is set to come out on Tuesday, and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, which looks at the changes in the prices of goods purchased by consumers, will be released on Friday.

[Lee Chowaniec]

Long transition from fossil fuels to net zero

Yes, the planet is warming. Yes, you see more heat waves. That is one-sided information. Despite more heat, heat deaths have gone down because ‘fixes’ come about on how to deal with situation.

Globally more people are dying from the heat than from the cold. Saying ‘no’ to fossil fuels in the near future is both unreasonable and hypocritical.

How the climate elite spread misery

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbe...ategory=foryou

[Lee Chowaniec]

Surge in crime is considered a ‘concern’, not a crisis

Well, at least not in the blue states where the public and police are assaulted, and the assailant is released within hours – to commit another crime as this individual did weeks prior.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the uptick in violent crime in cities across the country a "matter of considerable concern" but stopped short of acknowledging it as a crisis.

BS to the max!

Attorney General Merrick Garland stops short of calling crime wave a crisis: 'Matter of considerable concern'

https://www.foxnews.com/us/attorney-...erable-concern

Asked by NBC News' Lester Holt in an interview that aired Tuesday whether the rise in violent crime in America is a "crisis," Garland didn't use the word "crisis" to describe the situation.

"I think violent crime is a matter of considerable concern to the country and to the Justice Department, as it should be. The ability of people in our communities to walk their streets in confidence and safety is yet another element of democracy in which we live a part of our civic life. Part of the Justice Department's mission is to protect the people [of the] United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and domestic includes violent crime," Garland said.

Holt also brought up a recent comment by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who said criminals no longer respect law enforcement because of progressive bail rules that allow some to go free, even for serious offenses. In June, a clearly frustrated Adams lashed out at prosecutors and judges who allow violent offenders to be released back onto the streets.

"No one takes criminal justice seriously anymore," Adams said during a news briefing. "These bad guys no longer take them seriously. They believe our criminal justice system is a laughingstock of our entire country."

"I've spoken to the mayor many times. We spent some considerable amount of time in New York looking at the way in which our federal agents, our federal prosecutors and state and local prosecutors, all working together in fusion centers, evaluate a list of the top shooters, the people who are the most important drivers of violent crime in New York City," Garland said in response. "We are all working together carefully; to locate those shooters, to arrest them, to take them off the street and make sure that they see swift and certain justice," he added.


BS to the max AG Garland. You are trying to blow smoke up our ass. In New York, the perpetrator has more rights than the victims and police.

[Lee Chowaniec]

GOP announces midterm election plan

The public has been waiting for the GOP to stop harping on the failures and shortcomings of the Democrats without offering any solutions to correct the direction the country is taking.

Considering the crisis at the border, where illegals are being shipped throughout the country, housed, fed, and provided other services at U.S. taxpayer expense, where some states are allowing illegals the right to vote, the GOP is readying a plan that would ban illegals from voting.

GOP plan would ban illegal immigrants voting, mandate photo ID, election audits

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...a7a2c0a02f4334

The “American Confidence in Elections Act” would junk the Democrat plan to end key balloting protections, crack down on illegal migrants voting, pull back expansive voting procedures and restore states as the election authority.

The top goals of the ACE Act, according to documents provided to Secrets:

• “States have the primary role in establishing election law and administering elections.”

• “All eligible voters must be able to vote, and all lawful votes must be counted.”

• “Political speech is protected speech and all voices—including conservative voices—must be protected.”

Among the demands are photo identification, curbing the use of so-called “Zuckerbucks,” or outside funding by election officials, election auditing, and ending same-day registration, ballot harvesting, and automatically mailed ballots.

The new package is the GOP alternative to S.R. 1 and H.R. 1, the liberal election law changes pushed by Democrats and challenged in several states. While those proposals greatly broadened the federal government’s involvement in elections, the GOP plan proposes to shorten Washington’s reach and firm up ballot security without limiting access.

[Lee Chowaniec]

We are not in a recession unless Biden and his media cohorts say we are in a recession

For decades, the unofficial definition of a recession was two consecutive quarters of negative GDP. But that definition is being changed to where a significant decline in economic activity cannot be determined solely by GDP.

According to the Biden cabal, and even the National Bureau of Economic Research, a significant decline in economic activity results from several factors, including high unemployment, a slowdown of goods produced and sold, and wages falling in addition to negative GDP readings.

So, we are not in a recession. But if we were in a recession a lot of people tend to lose their jobs, cut back on spending or take on more debt to finance their expenses. But isn’t that already happening? Wait, it’s inflation that is crushing a great number of families living paycheck-to-paycheck.

But Biden has plans to help the crushed middleclass and poor by spending more money in his Inflation Reduction Act. Wait, what? Wasn’t it his spending that heated the economy and fueled inflation?

Biden just announced a 6-step plan to lower your electricity bill. The plan would incorporate six new measures to temper the price of electricity and make clean energy homes more widespread and affordable overall.

• Helping families in low-income rental housing pay for solar power
• Low-income families in five states can get access to solar power
• Small rural housing authorities will make energy efficiency upgrades
• Hundreds of thousands of solar jobs over the next decade
• Award programs for solar-powered communities
• More affordable housing supply

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/real...d2d5d798534a9a

So, the guy that got us into the inflation mess with his spending just needs to spend more to bail us out. Remember that when you are grocery shopping, filling your gas tank, paying your electric bills, your rent or mortgage – and with an increase coming in interest rates on credit cards, loans, and home mortgages.

And while in your misery worrying about paying your bills, try not to get upset in hearing Biden is mulling a plan to forgive $10,000 in student loans and delaying payments. Or, $10,000 to Congress members to beef up their home security. But you can trust Biden, right. The man has your best interests in mind. He doesn’t lie right? This Hunter Biden sordid sorry is just Russian disinformation, right?

Jesse Waters: Joe Biden proved he’s compromised today

https://www.foxnews.com/media/jesse-...p=hp1r_18,hp1r

[Lee Chowaniec]

Group of Republicans and Democrats form new political party to appeal to moderates

Interested? Yeah, me too! Think it will become a force capable of victory? Nah! As a lifelong unaffiliated registered voter, been down this road several times before. In today’s political climate where both major political parties are equally corrupt, dishonest, and invested in maintaining the divisive status quo, they will collaborate to crush a rebellious upstart.

America has made it clear they want neither Biden nor Trump in 2024. It is disturbing to learn of potential backup candidates. America is looking for change and new leadership.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...03d2841da329f8

A group of former Republican and Democratic officials are forming a new political party called Forward, in an attempt to appeal to what they call the “moderate, common-sense majority.”

“Political extremism is ripping our nation apart, and the two major parties have failed to remedy the crisis,” David Jolly, Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday. “Today’s outdated parties have failed by catering to the fringes. As a result, most Americans feel they aren’t represented.”

“Sixty-two percent of Americans now want a third party, a record high, because they can see that our leaders aren’t getting it done,” Yang told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day” on Thursday in a joint appearance with Whitman. “And when you ask about the policy goals, the fact is the majority of Americans actually agree on really even divisive issues. The most divisive issues of the day like abortion or firearms – there’s actually a commonsense coalition position on these issues and just about every other issue under the sun.”

Asked by Keilar on Thursday why they believe their effort to create a third party would work, Whitman said, “We’re in a different time.” “When you have 50% of the American people saying that they are registered independent … people are sick and tired of what they’re seeing in Washington and the fact that nothing major is getting done is frustrating them. We have big problems, and we want to see them resolved,” she said.