Miscellaneous
iLobby Mission We help voters figure out their stories so that they can change laws because your present policy decisions shape your political and economic future. We want to empower you to change laws so that you can improve your community, influence your country and impact the world. This podcast is about how to change a law using iLobby. It is based on the book How to Change a Law. http://amzn.to/1XyrWu6 You can learn how to vote, argue, debate, pledge and share a campaign at the iLobby free video proving ground. http://bit.ly/28MQ0qW -- Transcript (partial) -- The Party Is Not Much of A Party The party is a brand. But all brands need to evolve. As brands, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party do not adapt and change quickly enough to meet the needs of their audience. Also, because we only have two brands we flip back-and-forth between (R) and (D). Since neither one satisfies effectively, we have a lot of independents. I saw today on CNN where someone started a party called the “Party Party.” But every party needs a platform. If you ask anybody who is an advocate for an existing establishment party what their top issues are, they probably can't list very many. And the issues that they can list are probably only vague generalities. The key here is that issues are dynamic but parties are not. If the party is a brand, then it needs to adapt to the changing issues. The party usually puts out a policy platform on a periodic basis. This is a high level think tank paper that people are expected to believe in and follow. But since the party doesn't adapt well to the needs of every individual, it only sort of fits the things that you want, but not entirely. The one thing it is sure to do however, is leave you out. And maybe you're not sure why. Often the party is not connecting with you specifically. There are several reasons for this. For example, the party platform may not encompass the issues that you think about or are concerned with. Or maybe the party only covers issues that occur on the national level but doesn't capture issues on the state or the local level where party is much less relevant. Sometimes even when the party names some of the issues that you care strongly about, it does not clarify or identify where you stand. So what does this mean? Your position on an issue is the point of view or side that you support. And this is where the whole party platform thing begins to break down. The party has a general idea of what their position is on a particular issue and for your allegiance; they demand that you adhere to their same position. However not all issues are black-and-white anymore. Times have changed. Science continues to advance, new facts emerge, technology is changing and the economics underlying most of the issues we face have a complexity that goes beyond what the parties’ issues are. So you could have people in Washington supporting the party platform but nobody really gives a damn. Does that mean you should create a new party that has its own fixed ideas about what the top issues are and a general idea of where it stands as far as positional alignment? Not necessarily. As I said earlier, parties need to adapt. Why are they called parties anyway? Isn't a party supposed to be fun, engaging, interesting, and community oriented? But the parties of today are none of this.