New Party

This week in class we were presented with a scenario that let us pick either the democrats or the republicans and destroy them. Our mission was to build our own parties out of the ashes of the party that we destroyed. The result of that premise for the group I was involved in was a party called the Bear Claws. This new party that we created had some new innovative ideas, and overall played more towards moderates.

The platform for the party involved new, but not too radical, approaches to foreign policy. Examples of this include making a steady plan for with drawl from Iraq, and keeping no more troops there than needed, and focusing more on building their government up. Domestically the party focused on trying to focus more money domestically than foreign, and have no frivolous spending, it would advocate abortion only in cases of rape or health concerns, keeping gay marriage up to the states, and coming up with new fuel alternatives and ending our foreign dependance on oil. On the issue of campaign finance reform we decided that all funds must be raised through a national bake sale. Also the party would target bloggers and younger people, it would have celebrity campaigning, and the candidate would also visit every major college campus, and someone from the party would be required to visit every campus in the country. We also set realistic goals for the party, stating that we did not expect to win the presidency the first time out, but may pick up a few seats in Congress, and we would also be willing to further mold our party depending the results and responses we get in our first election. But now the question remains, would these guidelines be a good thing to follow?

Personally, I feel that these would be good guidelines for a party to follow, although maybe in more general terms. Some ideas like the national bake sale, which I would be a fan of, may go over like a led zeppelin in real world politics. But the main idea that our party brought to the table, appealing to the moderates, I would advocate following. The country today is too polarized and instead of trying to tear down the other person and the other party maybe one of the parties should try moving more towards the middle and attempt to unite more people. There are a lot of people out there who don’t have a strong party connection and have more moderate views. The parties should try appealing to them. I think the people would embrace a party that demonstrated some change. Start to trying to compromise on foreign policy and do what’s best for everyone in the long run, show more fiscal responsibility, don’t spend money stupidly, and take a realistic stance on social issues that are both responsible and logical. Instead of talking about change, make change, do something. Those are some the ideals and guidelines are party advocated that I feel should be followed. Also, our party targeted young people which is something that desperately needs to be followed. The parties are slowly starting to try to do this in different ways, but it needs to be more aggressive. Target bloggers, facebook, and college kids like our party wanted to. Make a mixed cd, and make sure someone from the party visits every college campus in the country. Get out there and make a real effort to reach the youth, and try to establish a connection with them. Like I said the parties now are making strides with this, but for some reason it still feels like they are step or two behind.

Launching a new party would not be easy, but I do feel like following some of our guidelines would be a good idea. Our main ideas were trying to capture the people who were on the fence about both parties and not too far to the left or too far to the right, and also about showing some change. These are guidelines that should be followed. Go after those people on the fence, but do it by showing some real attempts at change. I think these ideas would be useful to follow.