In response to post #1 (from Dan)...

Concord was founded on the realization that, as you say, "most of our partisan politicians aren't listening or don't have the nerve." In my opinion, our strength is our separation from electoral politics and indeed from any issue but the one: fiscal sanity. There are two reasons.

One, we prevent dillution and dissapation. In my experience, Concord members disagree profoundly on amlost every other issue except the compelling issue of balancing the budget. Only by cordoning off this single issue can we hang together and progress with strength toward our common aim.

Two, we serve a vital role as an objective standard bearer. We have established an intellectually-founded set of principals about how to get our fiscal house in order that we can (and do) apply to the various proposals, without endorsing politicians. The instant that we endorse a political contender, we cross a clear line into partisan politics, which commands loyalty to comrades over principals. Once that line is crossed, all credibility is lost.

As a standard bearer we are also able to function as a grassroots organization -- building public awareness and support for the required difficult action. I beleive that American Democracy works, in that leaders do indeed follow the citizenry. Concord beleives that a change in the public mind, as imposing as that challenge may seem, is a necessary precursor to any enduring change in leadership's behavior.

(You may have caught some of the latest furor over Concord's objectivity. In the latest round, Republican partisans bitterly chastised us for our failure to abandon our princials in order to support them, by withdrawing our criticism, in their time of need. They argue that our nuetrality make us complicit while the evil, as they paint it, vanquish the noble. Some would even say that we are biased, perhaps even deliberately, to one or another side. All of these claims are patently false, except to the degree that bias can never be entirely erased from the human character. But that's a-whole-nuther discussion.)

Personally, I have been watching the Reform Party. Interesting. I am not sure where it's going. Their mission certainly seems to be aimed at addressing your concern.