Howard Schultz: He tries to skip baby steps

A particular attribute that Howard Schultz shares with Ross Perot, Ralph Nader and George Wallace is the naïve impression that progressive political change can be accomplished top down.

That somehow a non-aligned, independent political party can win the majority support of the citizenry and take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; thence to revise and revamp the American Institution all the way down to Frog Hop, Tennessee.

This reverse-action strategy obviates the need for the growing pains, fits and starts, learning curves or any other baby steps that accompany the staggering task of defining, facilitating and promoting a platform that separates itself from the pack.

It skips the hard work of promulgating a message that forthrightly proposes genuine solutions to America’s problems.

If Schultz wishes to define his ideals as existing alongside but outside those of the Democratic and Republican parties, he should first consider growing his new party at the grassroots level.

This is where dissent is often loudest, at the wellsprings of injustice — where authentic progress is more readily noted. Hence: community, city, county, state — then to the top.

Otherwise, he risks appearing like just another half-baked billionaire, flinging money about in a cartoonish attempt to relieve his own boredom.