No Labels Foundation - No Labels: A Shared Vision for a Stronger America

By Senator Joe Manchin

Ill always remember the first time Jon Huntsman and I discussed the potential value of No Labels. At the time, I was the newest member of the United States Senate, and Jon had recently returned from serving as our countrys ambassador in China. We knew each other pretty well from our days as governorselected and reelected the same yearsand even though we were from different parties, wed spent serious time talking about everything from education to tax reform, from jobs programs to our shared love of motorcycles.

Together, we thought wed seen just about everythingbut wed never seen anything like No Labels before. And when we first talked about this new organization dedicated to a politics of problem solving, we both said the exact same thing: Finally.

Ever since Id gotten to Washington, Id been feeling more and more discouraged by the politics of division and point scoring I saw playing out in our nations capital. Nothing could have been more different from the way I had chosen to govern West Virginia. In Washington, I met too many people who thought that the other side wasnt worth talking to, period. I saw the way that members of both parties spent hours every day in meetings focused on fundraising, winning elections, or destroying the opposing party. With all that, there wasnt much time left to actually govern.

I knew it didnt have to be like this. In fact, Id seen firsthand the way governing can actually work. When I was a governor, I wasnt able to just ignore the other party or citizens of differing opinionsand I never wanted to. I had budgets to pass and governments to runand I had to work across the aisle to get it done.

In West Virginia, we had a distinctly American approach of problem solving, finding realistic solutions, placing country first, and governing with the next generation in mind. That was always our core motivation, even if some of us had differing party affiliations. Thats why I was so excited when I heard about No Labels. Finally, I thought, someone is pushing for that same commonsense approach in Washington.

I knew it could workand I was excited about the possibilities. So the first chance I got, I started meeting with Americans from all over the country who wanted to be part of this movement. They intuitively knew that this represented something differentsomething that actually spoke to the vast majority of Americans. The more I got involved, the more optimistic I got about this efforts potential. Early last year, I jumped at the chance to sign on as a national leader of the No Labels movementright alongside my friend Jon Huntsman.

Youll hear a lot more about No Labels in the pages ahead. But simply put, No Labels stands for something vitally importantand utterly commonsense. It stands for the basic principle that if we want to move forward as a country, we need leaders who are willing to sit down with anyoneconservative, liberal, or anyone in betweenso long as they are willing to work to achieve shared success for America.

We need our leaders to recognize that having principled political beliefs doesnt require an all-or-nothing approach to governance.

And we need leaders with humilitywho recognize that maybe you dont always have all the answers and that the people on the other side arent somehow evil or stupid by default.

These are the values No Labels stands for. In the chapters ahead, youll read about our campaign to put these values into actionand bring about the change so many Americans know this country is capable ofthe change this country deserves.

Politicians always tell us that we need to unite our nationbut no one ever actually tells us how they plan to do it. Thats why this bookand this new campaignis so different. In the pages ahead, youll read about the how. It starts with getting leaders to build consensus around shared national goalsand yes, they do existand then figuring out solutions to meet them together.

No one is ever going to get everything they want with this approach. But thats rarely a realistic possibility, anyway. Instead, this process will offer a way to forge agreement about where we need to go as a nation before the negotiations start raging. This way, both sides can collaborateeach giving or taking where neededuntil they can reach their mutual objective. They can find a way to move forward togetherinstead of being driven apart by every small political battle of the day.

This is an actionable approach toward real progressand a realistic way forward for America. Because ultimately, we are all on the same team. We are all Americans. Its time for us to come together to do what needs to be done. Thats what No Labels is all aboutand Im proud to be a part of it.