Why Party Platforms Matter

[Valin]

National Affairs

Tevi Troy

Spring 2024

friend once told me that he turned 18 during a presidential election year and didn't know which party to support. His uncle had a novel solution: He took the Democratic and Republican platforms, tore the covers off each, and then asked his nephew to read them both and decide which one made more sense. My friend did so, and he found the Republican platform more appealing. He would eventually become a lifelong Republican and a senior official in the George W. Bush administration.

Every four years, the parties go through the exercise of attempting to distill their beliefs into a single document. Pundits and journalists tend to dismiss this effort, while party professionals lament the unruly nature of the process. Yet the platforms serve an important purpose: In an age of sound bites and selective reporting, they give people a clear view of where the parties stand on specific issues and how they prioritize our nation's challenges. And, as in the case of my friend, they can serve as a gateway to party membership and further civic involvement.

Party platforms generally run 50 to 75 pages. They typically start with a party vision, an overview of the state of the nation, and an outline of the chief problems that must be addressed. At their best, platforms connect these different elements to show how the party hopes to tackle these problems. By producing this document, the party both informs the public about its intent and gives incoming officials a policy road map should their party win.

Unfortunately in recent years, we have seen the parties increasingly push the platform-drafting process aside. The Republican Party in 2020 barely had a platform — and that was by design. Its decision was a function of the degradation of the party apparatus and its role as an organizing institution of American political life. It was also a function of our failure to grasp the historical role of the party platform and its potential to help build a broader coalition. A recovery of that understanding is essential to reviving our ailing political parties.

ORIGIN OF THE PLATFORMS

 

(Snip)

My mentor Ben Wattenberg, a former Lyndon Johnson speechwriter who became increasingly associated with the right as the Democratic Party drifted left, worked on multiple platforms during his time as a Democratic operative. His fights with the left during those platform-committee battles of the 1960s and '70s helped him understand the full extent of the left's policy proposals, ultimately driving him away from the Democratic Party. AEI senior fellow and Dispatch founder Jonah Goldberg, who also worked for Wattenberg, once recalled the latter's views of platforms on his podcast, The Remnant:

My old boss Ben Wattenberg used to defend party platforms. He would say they don't matter that much but they also tell you what the party wants you to think it thinks about things. And that's instructive, even if it has no binding power, and even if it doesn't move voters, and all that stuff. It gives you an insight into the collective consciousness of an organization or an institution.

As we head into the 2024 election, at a time when party ideologies are muddled and politicians advertise their postures rather than their policies, platforms are more important than ever. We need those insights into the parties' "collective consciousness" to understand where those institutions are, where they are going, and whether we should entrust their representatives with our precious votes.

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Emphasis Mine

[MISBAILEY]

Ami Presents: Communist Manifesto or Democratic Party Platform? | PragerU

Interesting comparison....

[Valin]

25 minutes ago, MISBAILEY said:

Ami Presents: Communist Manifesto or Democratic Party Platform? | PragerU

Interesting comparison....

Google Waterfall of polarization Left vs right voting ideology