The American Agenda is the heart and soul of the political process.
No candidate is going to come forward unless the American Agenda has a real and credible definition.
Issues are primary. Feel good statements about the American Dream, for example, are irrelevant.
Start the process for defining the American Agenda!
Will Unity 08 have a platform, per se, or is it that Unity 08 will pose the substantive questions, publicize the candidates' answers, and allow the delegates to decide on individual candidates based on the combination of their answers to all the questions? It seems to me from my reading of the site that the latter is the case. If this is so, I can see that it would depart from the traditional view, which is reflected in some of the comments, that we define our platform and then try to find people to fit it.
As there are so many diverse issues, and often the answers to these are complex, I should think that we would want truly thoughtful answers from the candidates, rather than soundbites, and that truthful answers might not jive with a simplistically stated agenda. As it is, in the major parties we currently see candidates trying to define their own philosophy/ stand on issues according to what they think their voting bloc wants to hear. The resulting flip-flopping and spinning of quotes and votes is more comical than productive.
We want to make real choices within issues of a moderate majority. For our purposes the candidates and platforms must run hand-in-hand so the candidate must translate the 'issues of a moderate majority' which I think is implied by the tag "American Agenda" into a platform. One of my 'slogan' thoughts is...Unity 08 is the American Agenda for the issues of a moderate majority.
I would expect the same diversity in specific actions in platforms that I see discussed in the Shoutbox. That same diversity will stall Unity 08 (effectively shutting it down) if we try to make a specific action platform uniform for all. In doing so, just one specific action or another could eventually drive off all important candidates; that is, those capable of motivating a legislative body to an action. If we get progress on 50 per cent of our agenda, that is 100 percent more than the majority has realized in decades.
President are not monarchs (they just withheld that info from W), they must lead legislation by persuasion and broad public agreement.
Bill"for what we are together"
The term "American Agenda" should be changed or re-coined. "America" refers to the land mass which currently makes up South America, Central America, and North America, (including Canada, Mexico, the West Indies, the Dutch Antilles, the thirteen countries in South America, and etc.,) It is nationalistic and egocentric to refer to the United States of America as only "America." Many people in the Southern hemisphere of the Americas refer to themselves as "American." Therefore, in order to really define this agenda, we first need to appropriately name the term, and then coherently define it.
In Our Constitution and Bill Of Rights As Originally Written, the questionable issues are the Need and Validity of the Ammendments that have been made !!
I suugest whatever UNITY08 decides to do - must recognize and be based on this premise.
popo
Hi all,
I've recently blogged about what I feel are the four most important questions I'd like to see candidates address:
To the rest of you -- what's your list? After all, we delegates shape the Agenda by our questions, even if the candidates shapie it by their answers.
-- Dr. Ernie
Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D.
RadicalCentrism.org is a tiny little think-tank in Santa Clara, California.
Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D.
RadicalCentrism.org is a tiny little think-tank in Silicon Valley, California.