For twenty years, we Americans have watched the Democrats and Republicans gerrymander and entrench themselves in power. The two parties have largely abandoned the American center, American pragmatism, and much of the American population. The path out of this quagmire is a national centrist party. We therefore establish the Center Party of the United States.
The Center Party will cohere around a central platform. In 2010, we will contest more than 100 Congressional races and many state legislature races. Our candidates will have plenty of experience making our country run, but very little experience running the current Republican-Democrat system. We are necessarily newcomers to party politics, but some of us are not new to politics. In 2012, we will contest every possible Congressional and state legislature race, but no executive races.
The Center Party will be governed by its Board of Citizens. Founder and Chairman is Jeffrey Vanke of Roanoke, Virginia. Thirty-nine-year-old Vanke was born in Ohio and raised in North Carolina, and is at home in Roanoke, Virignia. An Eagle Scout, Vanke attended public schools, and he earned a Ph.D. in history at Harvard University. A former college professor (asst.) at Guilford College, Vanke is a stay-at-home dad of two children, ages 4 and 7. He is also an author of fiction and non-fiction, most recently of Europeanism and European Union.