Name: Anonymous 2005-10-16 13:28
America Needs A Third Party. Things Will Change Within Thirty Years. Everybody IS fed up, and things WILL change for the better with moderate effort. Forgive me my American pragmatism.
Republicans have ceased to be conservative, and democrats have all but ceased to be relevant. (the latter point may be a bit charitable on my part.) From the disparate elements of Green hippieism and Reform nutjobbery must be formed a new, principled, big-tent party. What should it look like and what should its goals be?
-it cannot focus simply on President. A party of many principled individuals must make it clear to the American people what they will do, and more importantly, what they will not do. Only a presence (even a minor one, of a dozen seats) and a good record for the party within congress can make a Ventura-style third-party wedge possible in a presidential race.
platform possibilities:
-excruciating honesty, and accountability. set a party precedent for statements of the following form. "my function is to be a public servant. I work for your interests. Things change, and it probably will not be possible for me to accomplish everything that I would like to. However, my top priorities are x, y, and z. Apart from constructive work, however, there are core principles which I will never violate. If I am found to have violated any of these (commit a felony, take money from lobbyists of any kind, vote against a certain, well-defined party value), I promise not to run for a future term. I am accountable for this statement." not everybody within the new party should have to make statements of this kind according to a certain program. but a precedent for it should be strongly encouraged. In particular, those who make the actual promises (which eschew rhetoric and deal in factual language) should be accountable by them. Establish a record of accountibility (even a good record of a handful of people over 3-4 years is incredibly significant) and contrast this with the private dealings of older congresspersons. If someone in the party fucks up, formally distance yourself from them (not total alienation) for reasons of principle and run a new guy.
-research. construct a description of the whole of the government, its agencies, functions, realized tasks and FAILURES. Make it highly visible to the American people. Following this factual account, is the party's subjective analysis. Expand upon this in various spaces and in other articles, right down to our protectorates, and our state governments. The point of this is to build up a reputation for disseminating SPECIFIC details of government which is not necessarily politically convenient, and replying with a course of action which IS admittedly political.
-responsible taxation and general accountability for money sources. This means that we can summarize the nature of our GDP, foreign policy (both governmental and domestic NGOs) going out, and money coming in (public and private, as much as possible). Assess the nature of the debt, what really has to be paid back.
-rescue the environment from being a non-issue. A more feasible course would be incentives for two or fewer children (this ought to be suggested once the party's in power, since it would most likely be election death, a reprehensible circumstance) and lowered consumption. Technology is our best hope for environmental improvement, at this point: we love to adapt it, and everyone who's relevant is hopelessly addicted to it. It'll be a cool problem for us.
-assess the uncomfortable problems of the long view (not feasible until the party is respected within congress). Why are we taking so many goddamn pills? When will the antibiotics become ineffective? Who is infecting whom with what? Which problems require legislation?
-military: this would be the best place to be the most maudlin and cloying. run like minded ex-military candidates who want to get into politics. Profess (and prove via legislation) a fervent love for the troops. Flag waving is definitely the most socially acceptable in this context. Run intelligent people who can be believable as flag-wavers when necessary.
-education, law-grapple with unions, no detail yet.
-social security, medicare, aging programs: assess factually and evaluate. (no stance yet)
-youth vote: become something that the minority of young people who vote will actually vote for. demonstrate to them that their vote will actually matter by getting matching funds in races.
-somewhere in here, we have to make some kind of concession to social conservatism in order to win elections. Dunno what it could/should be, though.
none of this means that the third party should be a monolithic bloc vote. But it SHOULD profess a number of core values to which its elected officials will conform in the right context.
Republicans have ceased to be conservative, and democrats have all but ceased to be relevant. (the latter point may be a bit charitable on my part.) From the disparate elements of Green hippieism and Reform nutjobbery must be formed a new, principled, big-tent party. What should it look like and what should its goals be?
-it cannot focus simply on President. A party of many principled individuals must make it clear to the American people what they will do, and more importantly, what they will not do. Only a presence (even a minor one, of a dozen seats) and a good record for the party within congress can make a Ventura-style third-party wedge possible in a presidential race.
platform possibilities:
-excruciating honesty, and accountability. set a party precedent for statements of the following form. "my function is to be a public servant. I work for your interests. Things change, and it probably will not be possible for me to accomplish everything that I would like to. However, my top priorities are x, y, and z. Apart from constructive work, however, there are core principles which I will never violate. If I am found to have violated any of these (commit a felony, take money from lobbyists of any kind, vote against a certain, well-defined party value), I promise not to run for a future term. I am accountable for this statement." not everybody within the new party should have to make statements of this kind according to a certain program. but a precedent for it should be strongly encouraged. In particular, those who make the actual promises (which eschew rhetoric and deal in factual language) should be accountable by them. Establish a record of accountibility (even a good record of a handful of people over 3-4 years is incredibly significant) and contrast this with the private dealings of older congresspersons. If someone in the party fucks up, formally distance yourself from them (not total alienation) for reasons of principle and run a new guy.
-research. construct a description of the whole of the government, its agencies, functions, realized tasks and FAILURES. Make it highly visible to the American people. Following this factual account, is the party's subjective analysis. Expand upon this in various spaces and in other articles, right down to our protectorates, and our state governments. The point of this is to build up a reputation for disseminating SPECIFIC details of government which is not necessarily politically convenient, and replying with a course of action which IS admittedly political.
-responsible taxation and general accountability for money sources. This means that we can summarize the nature of our GDP, foreign policy (both governmental and domestic NGOs) going out, and money coming in (public and private, as much as possible). Assess the nature of the debt, what really has to be paid back.
-rescue the environment from being a non-issue. A more feasible course would be incentives for two or fewer children (this ought to be suggested once the party's in power, since it would most likely be election death, a reprehensible circumstance) and lowered consumption. Technology is our best hope for environmental improvement, at this point: we love to adapt it, and everyone who's relevant is hopelessly addicted to it. It'll be a cool problem for us.
-assess the uncomfortable problems of the long view (not feasible until the party is respected within congress). Why are we taking so many goddamn pills? When will the antibiotics become ineffective? Who is infecting whom with what? Which problems require legislation?
-military: this would be the best place to be the most maudlin and cloying. run like minded ex-military candidates who want to get into politics. Profess (and prove via legislation) a fervent love for the troops. Flag waving is definitely the most socially acceptable in this context. Run intelligent people who can be believable as flag-wavers when necessary.
-education, law-grapple with unions, no detail yet.
-social security, medicare, aging programs: assess factually and evaluate. (no stance yet)
-youth vote: become something that the minority of young people who vote will actually vote for. demonstrate to them that their vote will actually matter by getting matching funds in races.
-somewhere in here, we have to make some kind of concession to social conservatism in order to win elections. Dunno what it could/should be, though.
none of this means that the third party should be a monolithic bloc vote. But it SHOULD profess a number of core values to which its elected officials will conform in the right context.