The Party Platforms

[FOTD]

The contrast between the two will never be greater....a partial portion of the article on the democrats platform process. The plank in St. Paul will be walked.


The Antiwar Plank

By John Nichols
This article appeared in the June 23, 2008 edition of The Nation.

June 5, 2008

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080623/nichols

"On the issues of Iraq and foreign policy, Democrats can't be vague or fuzzy," argue Representatives Barbara Lee, an Obama backer; Jim McGovern, a Clinton backer; and Sam Farr, uncommitted until after the primaries, in an open letter to delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The "Democratic Platform that will be ratified at the Convention in Denver will form our core statement of principles as a party for the next four years, principles that we will unite around in both the general election and beyond," they add. "With only months remaining before we unite as a party in August, it is critical that we take action now to ensure that a clear statement is made in our platform: we will end the war in Iraq; the Republican Party will not."
"Party platforms are often dismissed as meaningless. But presidential candidates and Congressional leaders do not treat them as such, and neither should antiwar activists. In writing the platform the relationship between the candidate and the party base is defined, and the message for the fall campaign is framed. Four years ago, after Democratic convention delegates finalized an agenda for the party's campaign, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. dismissed it as "a cautious platform." The chair of the party's platform committee, Representative Rosa DeLauro, said simply, "It reflects John Kerry." That was the problem. The platform's "transparent vagaries on Iraq"--to quote antiwar activist Tom Hayden--signaled a tepid approach to the war debate that ceded vital ground to the Republicans. When Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich supporters attempted to add antiwar language to the platform, Kerry's man, former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, rushed in to block them and bragged, "We didn't give up anything." Nor did they gain anything, as the results of that fall's election demonstrated. "