This campaign website introduces Unity Party of America VP nominee Eric Bodenstab, running-mate with Presidential nominee Bill Hammons:
https://ericforallofus.com/releases/
About Eric Bodenstab
Eric Bodenstab grew up in California before moving to Colorado and earning two Masters Degrees, one in Structural Engineering. He is the married father to two sons and works in the transportation engineering and construction field. Eric appeared in the #3 slot on the Colorado statewide ballot for Lt Governor in 2018, and increased his vote count more than 30,000% over his City Council vote count of a decade before (at this current rate of growth, millions and millions of Americans across America will be voting for Eric in the 2020 Election).
About the Unity Party of America
The Unity Party of America was founded on November 4, 2004. This Centrist national political party now covers 40 States — latest State: Wyoming — is officially recognized at the State level as a result of successful Unity Party candidate petitions as well as at the Federal level (FEC # C00591313), and has fielded candidates several election cycles in a row. Its official website is www.unityparty.us.
(This communication paid for by the United National Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.)
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Originally I sent Eric a list of questions and his style was to address them in an interdisciplinary narrative rather than point by point. I think his answers can stand on their own without my queries cluttering up the page. I want to thank Mr. Bodenstab for taking the time to contribute his unique perspective as a VP nominee on this blog. Now with all the introductions out of the way, let's go to Eric--
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Why am I now the VP candidate?
About a month ago, I lost my job like millions of other Americans also had. I told Bill at that point, I was considering dropping back - potentially all the way back to my State House District. Fortunately, I was not out of the labor force for very long. A month from now I will get started up again.
After realizing that I would be working again soon, I considered the VP candidate role to be more reasonable - especially as we gradually look to gain ballot access to states beyond Colorado. Also, truthfully, I don't think the front-running Democratic State House (29) is beatable by a third-party candidate. Furthermore, I was very close to convincing the unopposed Republican candidate to switching over to Unity and possibly keeping that as a two-way race.
Our current Secretary, who fled the Greens, said that Bill & I were the heart of the Unity Party, and there would be no Unity Party without us. That is particularly the case for Bill Hammons, as he petitioned onto the ballot three times - first time was back in 2008. It makes sense for us to be the first Presidential Candidates (with ballot access.) I was there from the very beginning in 2005 in Boulder.
My style and Bill's balance each other out nicely. I am perhaps more right of center; he perhaps a little to the left. I am perhaps more a visionary-type; he is more of the administrator. But who is to say? And things might change when we are elected to office...
Does that answer some of the preliminary questions? You can always look at our recently amended (4 Apr 2020) nation party platform - https://unityparty.us/about/platform/
The Unity Party at present seems to be attracting a fair number of more politically-active, left-leaning individuals. Particularly from the Green Party, which has imploded here in Colorado. From what I hear, their leader is autocratic and fixated on a set agenda that may not accurately represent the different types of people their party had originally attracted. For now, we will recruit as many of their former members - several that were interested in being candidates themselves - as we can. However, the Unity Party is still in the process of developing support, and I cannot say what it will look like in 20 years. We have some right-of-center members, too.
My thought is that we are not actually a 3rd party at this point or ever, but rather we are The 4th Party. The Libertarians are The 3rd Party - like them or not, and most people don't like them enough to cast their vote on them. If we had approval voting (like our friends over at the AVP in Colorado are promoting), perhaps we would see the Libertarians poll at 45 or 55% approval of their views and candidates. I think we could poll even higher at the Unity Party under those circumstances.
My personal vision is to see both the Unity Party and the Libertarians* overtake the Dems and GOP as the preeminent pair of United States' political parties. I don't think the Democrats and Republicans will go away; they are already too useful and too many people's identities already are strongly tied to these 150, 200-year-old organizations. But given Congress' approval rating and Trump's unpopularity with about half the nation, who knows what the future will bring?
The duopoly seems just about ready to implode. We see the Democrats becoming the democratic-socialists. While the Republicans are transforming into a farther right nationalist core. Where is the center in all this? We hope to take that center back and the good 1/4 to 1/3 of unaffiliated voters of the electorate.
How do I see myself? If there was a 2020 candidate that I had some interesting similarities with it was Marianne Williamson. I spent most of my 20s studying Buddhism and practicing mediation. I do not regularly practice anymore. Ms. Williamson of course developed a hybrid healing program, involving many aspects of the world’s oldest spiritual traditions that had either informed her early life or became increasingly available from the East in the 60s and 70s.
I think whoever occupies the White House needs to have a strong interest, knowledge and personal Mission within humanity's spiritual traditions. They need to understand at least a couple of the World's great religions with great appreciation. He or she needs to be able to interact and problem solve with the traditions that may be odds with their own. They need to heal the great big open wound that the conflict between these religious traditions has become. Because we have the freedom in the USA to assemble for almost any non-violent purpose - be it prayer or political - we should be the beacon of that to the world.
I do not know what the 2021 Executive Branch will look like, though I suspect it will look pretty much the same. If so, there is no telling if Trump may change his tune or pander to his supporters. It is possible that the Dems could take full control of Congress, and then we would have a more of a stalemate. The Dems may not change their tune and seek impeachment on ridiculous grounds. Hopefully, we can ride though this pandemic without much further damage to the economy and without much more loss of human life. Much of this has been already expressed much better than I will attempt here.
Other candidates I have liked so far are Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard. Sanders doesn't do it for me, though I cross paths with plenty of supporters in his base. With each of these individuals, their biggest limitation may be being in the Democratic Party. It is disappointing how they all have done an about face and endorsed Biden. It is part of the reason I left the Democratic party some time ago.
That all being said, I like Our ability to get along and Work for the Common Good. Is that not what a Unity Party should primarily be about?
Thank you,
Eric
*To make this even simpler I would rename the Libertarians: The Liberty Party. That alone would be an enormous undertaking on their part, because most states do not allow for name changing, despite however similar it is.