If you go to Denver as a delegate, don't let your candidate tell you how to vote on the platform

[Ken Burch]

The platform belongs to the party, NOT TO THE PRESIDENTIAL TICKET.

The party nominates the candidate.

The candidate should NOT get to dictate what the party stands for.

Vote for progressive planks on all issues.

Especially:

1)An UNAMBIGUOUS position on getting out of Iraq/Not Bombing Iran:
No progressive goals are served by either the current war or any proposed future one. And no one who's even thinking of voting for us backs either one.

2)A New Trade Policy that rejects globalization on corporate terms: Scrap the existing deals, since they are all antiworker and antienvironment and create a new trade policy from the bottom up. The "Party of the People" needs to support Trade For The People.

3)A real universal healthcare policy:single-payer if at all possible.
This has majority support.

4)Repeal of the Patriot Act and FISA.

5)Labor Law Reform/Repeal of Taft-Hartley.

The Democrats have to back the above to be different from the Republicans.

No more Wall Street platforms. No more big donor platforms.

The Platform Belongs To The People!

OK?

[Lady President]

1. We Didn't Vote on the Platform (2004)

I can clearly remember voting for Kerry as the nominee and signing the form, but I don't think that there is a formal vote on the platform. I know for certain that we didn't have any input. Maybe the delegate chair votes?

Maybe someone else had a different experience, but for me the Convention was really more about meeting interesting people, attending great lectures, and hearing the speeches-- not much real 'politicing' happening.

[Ken Burch]

2. Then this time DEMAND a vote! 2004 proved that NOT having a vote or a debate leads to defeat.

the 2004 Convention was useless in terms of actually electing anyone as a Democrat. And it was Kerry's demand that it be a politics-free zone that made it useless.

We have to get past the idea that Democratic principles are permanently unpopular and Democratic ideals must be hidden from the voters.