Loomio
Wed 22 Mar 2017 6:25PM

New Platform

RES Robert E. Smith • West Virginia Delegate Public Seen by 444

Andy began a thread asking about our current platform. To my knowledge, nothing really exists. All we had on our website was four broad topics with a sentence or two for each of them- not a real platform.

I think it is important for MGP to operate fairly independently, as decentralization is a key value of the green party. Not to mention, the GPUS platform does not address Maryland specific issues.

There are 3 approaches to drafting a new platform that I believe we need to come to a consensus on which path to go.

  1. Tweak the National Party Platform.

  2. Cherry-pick from other State Green Party platforms

  3. Build a platform from scratch.

Thoughts?

AEC

Andy Ellis-Baltimore City-Delegate-He/Him Wed 22 Mar 2017 6:30PM

I would ad either as 4) or as 3)a. Build platform from endorsements.

I think that there while we don't need to suggest every bill we support as a platform item it does lay out a lot of concepts and specific actions we agree with that touches on
-The Justice System
-The Education System
-Fracking
-Labor and wage issues
-Access to braodband
-Marijuana Legalization

RES

Robert E. Smith • West Virginia Delegate Wed 22 Mar 2017 6:47PM

Here are my thoughts on each option:

    • This would be the easiest choice, as the GPUS platform is fairly detailed. Essentially we would just add on to it to create Maryland specific content. However, controversy may arise should we feel the need to subtract content from the current GPUS platform. Another reservation I have is that the GPUS platform I don't believe lays out the Green New Deal, which i think we should include in our platform.
    • California and New York have detailed platforms specific to their state. Other states like Colorado just have a list of resolutions that are not solution specific. I think we can get a lot of ideas from these other parties and certainly borrow a good bit of content.
    • This is the more difficult option, but it allows us the freedom to structure it however we want.

  4. (Andy's proposed option) - Have a platform that is structured off of our legislative endorsements. I think it is a great idea, but it raises the question, do we include foreign policy matters into our platform? We all probably would agree that we do need to include it as we have just come out against the BDS ban. However, with this approach I think it certainly takes less emphasis from foreign affairs- but maybe that makes more sense.

In conclusion, I think I would like to avoid option one. I like Andy's idea, but I would also like to include the 10 key values- maybe use them as the outline. So i'm in favor of options 3/4, but I do think it be wise for us to take a look at what other state parties have done, especially if we can avoid having to create original content for everything. Also, I don't think we have to have the Green New Deal as a part of our platform, rather it can just be a plan/resolution that is independent of the platform.

AEC

Andy Ellis-Baltimore City-Delegate-He/Him Wed 22 Mar 2017 10:41PM

We have a couple of people very interested in doing international work.