Had someone asked me ten years ago by what mechanism I might realize my long-held dream of a Third Major Party, my reply would have sounded alot like Facebook: Some kind of internet-based (thus coast-to-coast) free, un-censored, totally interconnected website whereby left-leaning people might join together, progressive ideas might flourish, the corrupt might be exposed, and truth, sweet truth, might prevail!

Such a mechanism, I mused, would surely allow We The Hundred Million Left-outs to circumvent the two government-endorsed parties and easily organize a third one - an American Progressive Party! - the left-of-center major party that should have been with us all along but, strangely, has not.

And with both Democrats and Republicans darting ever farther right, "Now!" (meaning anynow between this now and ten nows ago) would be the perfect time to plant the cleats, cut left and score this lofty goal...if only we had such a mechanism....sigh...

Now, of course, we do.

Back in my native New York on Thursday, I was bolstered by a scene of what I call the real New Yorkers (along with tourists and honking cab drivers) joining in a protest of the adulation bestowed on torture lawyer John Yoo at the swank University Club off Fifth Avenue.

The hoi aristoi arrived at the club quite decked out in silk ties and pricey shoes to honor Yoo, the Bush administration lawyer who drafted some of the most objectionable rationalizations for torturing detainees in the “war on terror.” (He is now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley.)

My chatting with the hoi polloi on the street, who were supporting the protest, brought a welcome reminder that the self-important “meritocracy” of the University Club – “the suits and the shoes” as we call them – hardly represent New York City.

Just about everyone who has followed he local and national news on horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, knows that oil and gas corporations are putting immense resources into campaigns, lobbying, advertising, front groups, faux grassroots groups, and just about anything you can imagine, all in opposition to any new regulations, especially at the federal level of government.

Before going on, consider that fracking should not be viewed in isolation from the more extensive process of which it is one part. The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s extensive review of the evidence, released by the Shale Gas Production Subcommittee 90-Day Report on August 18, offers its assessments and recommendations. Here’s one that applies to how we should think about fracking as a multi-stage process:

Labor Day has come and gone, but the real battle over whether workers are actually honored and valued in Ohio will be decided on Election Day in November. To understand what’s at stake, one must begin with the concept of American exceptionalism -- the notion that America has its own unique political ideology embracing individualism and entrepreneurship.

The reality is that what makes America different from other western European democracies is simply its lack of a mass Labor Party or a Democratic Socialist Party. The Democratic Party is arguably the second most pro-corporate party in the western world, and President Barack Obama reminds us of this daily. Obama’s numbers have hit record lows with only 26% of the population having any faith in his economic policies.

In a time that cried out for infrastructure development and large scale jobs programs, Obama instead spent his political capital and three quarters of a trillion dollars in taxpayers’ capital bailing out the financial corporations that had wrecked the system and the large corporations known for investing in machines and people overseas, not American workers.

Are you tired of trying to figure out if there’s any real difference between Republican and Democratic politicians, and whether there’s a difference between liberals and progressives, libertarians and anarchists, independents and moderates, or tea partiers and neoconservatives?

Are you fed up with being forced to chose between the lesser of two evils when electing a president, and are you afraid to cast a vote of conscience because the worser of two evils might get elected?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, perhaps you might want to consider aligning yourself with others who share your concerns and whose political views extend across the spectrum.

The one thing we all have in common is that we are voters and we are sick and tired of our government being controlled by corporations and special interest groups who could care less about our happiness, our health, our families, our jobs, or our futures.

What would you call a political philosophy that focuses on the rights and interests of all voters? What terms would you use and how would they be defined?

Here are a few ideas: