Home › Blogs › mindyfinn's blog ›

Pick Our GOP Platform

Submitted by mindyfinn on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 11:48
in

For almost two months on the Next Right, we've dicussed -- often debated -- a new Republican party platform.  Now via a new website, the Republican National Committee is giving us the chance to weigh in to the platform that will be adopted at the 2008 GOP Convention in September.

Barack Obama's campaign has waged a similar effort, asking for input into the platform on the community blogs on his website.  Yet, the RNC's site is a more blatant, direct call for platform ideas via text and video submissions.

Kudos to our eCampaign friends at the RNC for getting this effort through the traps and launching it in reasonable advance of the convention.  Let's give them the benefit of confidence and assume that the collective suggestions on the site will make their way into the real platform. Who knows? The platform committee may find some of these ideas valuable.

I'll admit that the introduction videos are a bit too contrived for my taste and the signup process smells of a heavy-handed vetting process for submissions.  However, this effort has the potential to be much more than a gimmick; it's entirely sensical to limit Republican Party platform suggestions to Republicans (and those who vote that way). 

I plan to pull what I believe are the best articulated platform ideas from this site and others and submit them.  I'd encourage you to do the same.   

UPDATE: The RNC hasn't rolled this out in a big way yet. 

For this to be a serious, valuable effort, and to maximize the number of subissions, all cylinders of the RNC and Convention staff should promote it -- in TV, radio and blog interviews, to state party leaders, to grassroots and volunteers.  They'll know it's successful when considerable numbers of community and peer groups take this seriously and make an effort to collaborate on their submissions.

3
Your rating: None Average: 3 (2 votes)

Comments

A few thoughts...

Submitted by CodenameV on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 16:12.

"Barack Obama's campaign has waged a similar effort, asking for input into the platform on the community blogs on his website.  Yet, the RNC's site is a more blatant, direct call for platform ideas via text and video submissions. "

On the link you've provided, the text starts with:

"Welcome to the most grassroots-driven platform development effort in the history of American politics!"

It then goes on to state that  "you can share your thoughts, participate in polls, and communicate directly with the policymakers who will be shaping the party's agenda." This communication will be handled through the website directly.

However, the Obama campaign (which released this idea first by the way), do things a little differently. This is direct quoting from the e-mail being distributed to supporters:

"This year, ordinary people like you will gather in their homes, community centers, places of worship, and even coffee shops to discuss the issues that matter to them and help decide what should be at the heart of the Democratic platform for change.

The input we get from these meetings will help shape the platform at the Democratic Convention in August.

Platform Meetings are a great way to connect with fellow supporters and help write the next chapter in the history of the Democratic Party.

We'll make sure you have all the resources and support you need to succeed. All you need to provide are your ideas for America and your hunger for change."

These supporters will be directly meeting with each other to discuss the direction to our country. The RNC is obviously keeping this through their website in order to shield the requests and ideals of the American people if it is a policy they frown apon.

Follow-through

Submitted by Sean Hackbarth on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 00:23.

Right now there's a significant level of cyncicms on the part of some conservatives that the Republican Party isn't listenting to them. Opening up the platform process could help ease that if it really is opened up. The follow-through by platform committee is crucial. I wonder how they will process all these suggestions and videos. A lot of material has already been submitted.

Promoting the Platform Website

Submitted by texicali on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 01:54.

I've already received emails promoting the platform website.....it's also listed in the state delegation weekly newsletter my state is putting out to the entire delegation which is large....I hope they heavily promote this partywide at all levels as it's a great opportunity to make your voices heard...mindy thanks for posting about this here I hope people here go check it out

Public Relations, nothing more!

Submitted by davidfarrar on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 10:57.

Allowing the voices of the many to come together as one, is the very reason we have political parties. Consequently, the procedure for creating a party's political platform is spelled out in great detail in every local, State, and national party bylaws and constitution. Any changes made in this very important process at the party's national convention, again, by party rules, would only apply to the next general election, not to the present general election. This is done to guard against someone taking over the party's political platform just to advance any one particular political agenda.

To date, I have not seen any changes made to any local, state, or national party bylaws as it relates to changing the process by which the party's political platform is adopted can even be addressed at the national convention for this election.

What we have here is your typical public relation ruse mounted by the Obama campaign to fool as many voters as possible into believing their voices will actually be heard. It is not surprising to me in the least the RNC is now following their lead.

As I have said before, both political parties have long ago sacrificed everything they have once stood for to the goal of winning the next election. Political power is the only thing the political elite is concerned with in these contests, and certainly not in listening to the voice of the People.

ex animo

davidfarrar

 

Idealistic

Submitted by Sean Hackbarth on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 19:10.

The whole point of political parties are to get their people elected. It's been that way since the beginning of political parties. Time for you to get past your romantic notions of a past that didn't ever exist.

And who, pray tell, are "their people"?

Submitted by davidfarrar on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 21:44.

Mr. Hacknarth's political naivete is so astonishing, I feel I can only hold it up as an example of just how far our young participants have been conditioned by the present system. The object here, according to Mr. Hacknarth, isn't to bring forth to the voting public the ideals that will help this nation weather its political storms, but simply to win the next election. I am sure this is much the same kind of thinking many young German "Brown Shirts" had when Hitler was elected to power. Political ideology doesn't matter any more. History has been rewritten -- and it's time to get with the program.

Astonishing!

ex animo

davidfarrar

Godwin's Law

Submitted by Sean Hackbarth on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 19:44.

You can't read. I wrote, "The whole point of political parties are to get their people elected." The Republican Party seeks to get Republicans elected while the Democratic Party seeks to get Democrats election. That's why those organizations exist in the first place.

The parties are different than the ideological movements. The role of the conservative movement is to spread conservative ideas. As part of that movement I want to help develop great, marketable conservative ideas. As a Republican I think that party is the best means to advance conservatism. There may come a time when that won't be the case and I'll change party affiliation accordingly.

Next time you want to insult me use something better than a Nazi reference. It's a sign of intellectual ineptness.

You are welcome to your own delusions, as am I.

Submitted by davidfarrar on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 21:57.

But I am sure there are many conservative Republicans who would be shocked to learn the Republican Party has a different agenda than their ideological movement.

A true political party should not be defined at the ballot box,  but by the political platform it adopts and enforces. 

Sadly, I fear, you are all too correct, the Republican Party has been taken over by people who believe as you do. People who are willing to get behind any ideology as long as they believe it's a winner.  Which is why you probably don't see anything wrong with the new '08 Republican Platform Committee's online effort asking for any body's input into the development of the Republican Party's political platform instead of asking for just REGISTERED Republicans.

ex animo

davidfarrar

Actually read

Submitted by Sean Hackbarth on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 00:04.

David, you're a hopeless cause. I'm not one "to get behind any ideology as long as they believe it's a winner." Find where I've written that. You can because I haven't.

Political parties are tools for ideological movements to win elections. As a conservative I see the GOP as the best bet to do that.

As for the online platform participation in many states there's no such thing as party registration. I lived in Minnesota and Wisconsin, was active in the GOP, and didn't have to register. I don't know how the Republicans will handle sifting through the thousands of platform recommendations. Heck, they may not pay any attention to them at all and treat the platform website as simply a cynical marketing ploy.

You are mistaken

Submitted by davidfarrar on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 09:08.

As it turns out, the Republican Party may be a tool to win elections, but for conservatives, it no longer represents their values. True conservatives should no longer simply accept the philosophy of choosing the lesser of two evils and hope our ideology will be understood, accepted and supported by the voting public. Speaking from twenty years of Republican Party experience in placing the same bet you are now placing, I have learned that a democracy just doesn't work that way. A political party cannot follow the voters, it must insist voters follow it (political platform). Now, does that sound like the political philosophy our new online GOP Platform Committee is following?

And it's true there are some states that don't require party registration to vote. Nevertheless, Republicans can register with the Republican Party in those states.

Sean, the real political fight for true fiscal conservatism, is not to win the next election, but to take our party back so that when our party does win elections, it will actually do the country some good.

By the way, have you actually checked out the new GOP Political Platform Committee's website yet?   It is incredibly crude and unsophisticated by today's fora standards. It has no true navigation tools, no avatar settings, no way to change your password settings they first provide...the list in endless.

You would think they would post the party's presently adopted political platform and go from there. But from what I see, it just seems like they are simply interested in getting your email address instead of a serious attempt to employ the power of the Internet to actually bring the many voices of REPUBLICANS together as one.

ex animo

davidfarrar