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Beware the No Labels Party--A New Right-Wing Front?

Updated: Nov 27, 2023


By Jessie Seigel/November 26, 2023





What is the No Labels Party?


It's an organization that promotes itself as a "...national movement of commonsense Americans pushing our leaders together to solve our country's biggest problems." It claims to be a grassroots movement with a mission "to heal this divided country" by supporting centrism and bipartisanship appealing to a so-called sensible majority.


This year, the group has been working towards fielding a third-party presidential candidate as an alleged alternative to those of the Democratic and Republican parties. According to Politico, Mark McKinnon, a former GOP strategist who helped found No Labels, has said, "The whole idea is to save the republic from Donald Trump."


Don't believe it.


Ask instead: who is funding No Labels? What does that organization really stand for? And what is its real goal?



Following the Money


No Labels does not make discovery of its patrons easy. It refuses to disclose who is financing its third-party presidential candidate project, offering only the weak excuse that it is afraid its contributors will be harrassed. But its refusal makes it a dark money political group.


This organization has largely gotten away with its non-disclosure because it is registered as a nonprofit, and a 2010 U.S. Court of Appeals ruling as well as a 2014 decision by the Federal Election Commission held that until a nonprofit officially nominates a candidate, it is not subject to campaign-finance rules.


Despite No Labels' secrecy, some telling information has been unearthed.


According to CNBC, of over $21 million raised in 2022, around 80 percent of No Labels' total revenue--approximately $17 million--came from about 68 unnamed individual donors who each gave $100,000 or more.


According to The New Republic, the organization has received more than $100,000 from Harlan Crow, the right-wing billionaire who showered Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury vacations, private school tuition, and real estate.


End Citizens United has stated that Crow also "steered at least two dozen of his other megadonor friends to the group."


And according to Influence Watch, billionaire Nelson Peltz, who was a heavy donor to former president Donald Trump, gave $900,000 to New Labels associated PACs.


As Esquire has so piquantly observed:


...Let us decline to be in kindergarten. Big money conservative donors are not drawn to No Labels because of this desperate hunger for "common sense solutions" to what No Labels sees as the nation's problems.... They are drawn to it because they want and need another Republican in the White House to protect the tax cuts and deregulatory regimes through which they become richer.


In an opinion piece in The Hill last August, Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan wrote, "...why would major Republican donor Harlan Crow give money to No Labels for a third-party candidate? Because he understands it's all just a ruse to get Donald Trump back into the White House." Pocan added that what No Labels wants in a president is "someone like Donald Trump who turns a blind eye to rules, regulations and laws."


Even anti-Trump Republicans recognize the real purpose of the the No Labels party. As early as June 15, Rick Wilson, a founder of the Republican Never-Trump Lincoln Project tweeted: "The plan all along was to burn down Biden, and they're getting on the ballot in key states to do just that."


No Labels' Alleged Centrism Is Its Smoke Screen


No Labels was founded in 2010, supposedly by a group of reasonable centrists who wanted to work together to solve problems. But its members' ideas of problem-solving were more conservatively Republican than centrist. They opposed legislation that would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, cheaper prescription drugs, gun safety laws, and voting rights protections, while--of course--keeping their holy filibuster intact to enable blockage of such legislation.


No Labels even tried to derail the January 6 investigation, tweeting in May 2022: "...the January 6 Committee's work has become a partisan exercise..."


No Labels' Real Goal


No Labels claims that it recognizes the danger another Donald Trump presidency poses to democracy, and its founding chairman, former conservative Democratic (subsequently Independent) senator, Joe Lieberman, has claimed that the group's internal polling shows that a No Labels ticket would not be a spoiler.


At the same time, Lieberman, and the party's National Co-Chair Benjamin F. Chavis, have acted as spoilers by falsely claiming that both the Democartic and Republican parties favor extremists. One must wonder what on earth No Labels' notion of extemism is. While the right-wing has supported and participated in the January 6 attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, even the farthest left of the progressives respect and follow the rule of law. They simply support policies and legislation with which the No Labels so-called centrists disagree.




Will West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin make a thrid-party run for president?


No Labels has been courting West Virginia's conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin for much of this year. Now that Manchin has decided not to run again for the Senate, he is more seriously flirting with becoming the party's candidate.


In a video anouncing his retirement from Congress, Manchin said he would be "traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together."


Clearly, Manchin understands the danger that is Trump. He has told NBC News, "I'm totally, absolutely scared to death that Donald Trump would become president again." He added, "I think we will lose democracy as we know it."


And yet, Manchin has had the gall to suggest that Democrats as well as Republicans are extremists who "are in the business of feeding political division and dysfunction every day..." In a USA Today op-ed, he lumped the two parties together, writing: "They want us to see each other as enemies because they feed off of it. They attack our institutions, whether it is our Capitol, our elected leaders, or our justice system, without caring about the lasting damage it does."


Manchin added, "But I am not threatened by debate." This, from the man who in recent years has wielded a one-man veto power over his own party's agenda. And who has repeatedly prevented debate by almost single-handledly protecting the filibuster.


While insisting he would never want to be a "spoiler," Manchin said on NBC's Meet the Press, "I will do anything I can to help my country, and you're saying, 'Does that mean you would consider [running for president]? Absolutely."


According to Associated Press, while again claiming he would never want to be a spoiler, Manchin went on to assert he would do what he had to in order to save the country: "If they said, 'You're the only person to do it,' I'll do whtever I can to save this nation."


One must ask exactly who Manchin means by "they." Could it be the financial backers of No Labels who massage his ego? One could also be excused for asking who is to save us from yet another self-righteous, petty savior with delusions of grandeur.


The Bottom Line


According to the New York Times, Biden advisers believe Manchin ultimately won't run given his own comments about not wanting to be a spoiler and his strong opposition to Donald Trump. But given Manchin's conservative history and apparent ego, Biden and his advisers should not count on it. Even if Manchin doesn't run, they need to take the No Labels party's spoiler intentions and abilities seriously.


According to Ballotpedia, as of October 2023, No Labels managed to become ballot-qualified in eight states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, and South Dakota. These states have a total of 90 electoral votes. No Labels believes it can get on the balllot in perhaps 25 states.


This organization is led by former conservative Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman (founding chairman); former Maryland Republican governor, Larry Hogan (National co-chair); National Newspaper Publishers CEO Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis (National Co-Chair); former Republican governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory (National Co-Chair); and former Democratic governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon (Director, Ballot integrity Project).


To the uninitiated eye, this crew might make No Labels look non-partisan. But it is not. Rather, it is a front for right-wing billionaires hoping to mislead and siphon off independent and moderate Democratic votes in order to aid Donald Trump or some other Republican of his ilk to take back the White House.


With the survival of democracy at stake next year, voters cannot afford to fall for this right-wing decoy.



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Invitado
29 nov 2023
Thank you for your thoughtful article. Do you know Ben Chavis' background? In 1993, the national board of directors of the NAACP elected Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr as the executive director and CEO of America's oldest civil rights organization. Chavis later served in 1995 as the National Director of the Million Man March, and the Founder and CEO of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS). Since 2001, Chavis has been CEO and Co-Chairman of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network,[2][3] in New York City which he co-founded with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. --wikipedia problems with NAACP https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-10-mn-11808-story.html checkered background. https://milwaukeecourieronline.com/index.php/2023/07/08/black-publishers-vow-to-remove-benjamin-chavis-to-save-the-black-press-nnpa/
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