[Campaigns-l] Progressive Thought

[Peter Saint-Andre]

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Greg Schnippel wrote:
> On 7/6/06, Peter Saint-Andre <stpeter at jabber.org> wrote:
> 
>> My sense from the mission statement Jimbo wrote is that we're trying to
>> open up the political process and make the political debate more
>> objective -- not that we're trying to further progressive, liberal,
>> libertarian, conservative, green, socialist, communist (etc.) thought or
>> ideology or movements.
> 
> I got the opposite sense from the mission statement -- I assumed that
> this would become a place for people aligned with one party or another
> to gather and refine their own party's platform out in the open. 

Or, perhaps, an effort to move beyond the existing parties? As far as I
can see, many Americans feel politically homeless and do not like the
polarization of the political debate. I rather doubt that Americans are
as polarized as the parties are, and the parties are that way in large
measure (IMHO) because of gerrymandering and the resulting safe seats.

> The
> focus of the site and the mission statement on 'political campaigns'
> as opposed to issues meant to me that this would be a forum for
> deciding what the national parties platform on 'X' should be or how
> Candidate 'Y' should structure their platform.

I think the national parties (U.S.) have their own means for defining
their platforms. But the first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all nature of
American elections means that candidates are fairly entrepreneurial in
the U.S. (unlike most parliamentary systems, which more strongly enforce
party discipline). And there are many local offices for which elections
are typically non-partisan (city council and such). So a focus on issues
and candidates might be more productive than a focus on parties. Or so
it seems to me.

Peter
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