Primary Season Documentary Series:

This election season, we aren't interested in hearing politicians and pundits talk about what the people want. We don't want analysts to trot out a list of issues that have polled well, or polled badly. We don't want one campaign to focus-group-test a pitch here, and another campaign to focus-group-test a pitch there, and use the results to divide and conquer. We are tired of hearing about who is jockeying for first place in the presidential horse race. This election is about more than politics, politicians, or political science. It is about us.

We want to see a mother of three with medical bills of over $15,000 ask Mike Huckabee how his health insurance proposal can help her. We want to see a pistol-packing Republican ask Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama how they propose to keep the country safe. We want a man with Mexian-American grandchildren to talk with John McCain or Mitt Romney about their immigration policies, and be challenged by the wife of a construction worker whose livelihood is being threatened by cheap labor. This is Purple States. There is no filter and no script. We are a group of citizens who look like America, going nose-to-nose with the candidates and each other, asking the questions closest to our hearts, wrestling with the implications of this choice for us, our families, our communities, and our country.

As we choose the next federal government, the news on the TV and internet must be not just ABOUT us, but FOR and BY us, in the most direct way. We are in the midst of a sea change. We all sense it: primary after primary witnesses record turnouts. In the recent past, earth-shattering events have shaken our country. The battles of George Bush and Al Gore, the rise and fall and continued appeal of Gov. Mike Huckabee, the political flirtations by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the outside candidacy of Ron Paul, the horserace, the bickering of politicians, the battles between and within each party, are not the main story. The American people are now standing up to make their views known directly, to steer the ship of state with both hands on the rudder. We are redefining citizen journalism.

Purple States is the people's platform for this presidential election, on T.V. and online, as videos, blogs, and vlogs. We aren't out to promote consensus; we are convening a red-and-blue conversation. Purple States is a new way for the public to interpret political news and opinion for themselves. Choose a president. Take part in the greatest game of all, the one with the most at stake: democracy.