As many of you know, the online progressive community has been working together to collectively and democratically craft a shared vision for the country. Only three short weeks ago, a small band of netizens gathered in Austin to kick off the process of writing our own political platform. We set our goals high: to collectively write a shared progressive vision for the country, which we would use to influence the Obama/DNC national platform process.
After many intense days of writing, remixing, and rating, the final version is complete. Amazingly, what started with just a few people brainstorming ideas at Netroots Nation has since grown to an impressive 29-page policy document, involving 246 registered participants, 167 planks and 925 ratings, and ultimately coauthored by 164 people across the country!
And we just received word that some parts of the Netroots platform were included in the National Platform. (We're just not sure which...)
Follow us below the fold for more...
Over the next two days, we are going to be rolling out the platform planks that you've written. To make this a bit less overwhelming, we've included this "mothership" post. As we post individual diaries on the planks, we'll be linking to them here, so rec this diary if you want to make sure to see them. And make sure to look out for new posts over the next two days!
Here are the planks (these will turn into links to individual diaries as they get posted):
General Principles
Economy
Civil Rights
Healthcare
National Security & Foreign Policy
Energy & the Environment
Electoral Reform
Education
Science & Technology
Media & Communications
Food & Agriculture
We worked entirely online using a democratic, collaborative writing tool from MixedInk.com. Anyone could contribute by writing, editing, remixing the best ideas, and rating planks. At the end of the 3-week process, the plank with the highest average rating within each category became part of the final platform. Jerome Armstrong of myDD said it well:
"The process itself was truly a metaphor for the Netroots ideals of openness, transparency and democracy."
While the official DNC draft platform and Netroots platform overlap significantly on some policies, including net neutrality, the patients' bill of rights, and greater federal investment in renewable energies, other policies advocated by the Netroots – amending the recently passed FISA bill, military budget cuts, and the abolishment of the electoral college – diverge significantly from the official Democratic party line.
We're in the process of setting up a conference call with the principals who have been working on the democratic platform – so let us know in the comments where the Netroots Platform differs from the DNC platform – those are the areas where we need to keep pushing!
This is your work, and the work of your fellow netizens, and we could not be more proud of the process and the product. In addition to the welcome news that at least a section will be included in the final democratic platform, we've also got some ideas about how to keep this document alive and growing. Among them:
- open it up for review and discussion whenever the leadership is working on policy on particular issues.
- Reopen it for revision in advance of next year's Netroots Nation
- Or use the MixedInk tool for additional drafting of policy or legislative proposals, petitions, and op-eds.
We'd like to open this discussion to all of you and seek your ideas.
This is your platform...what else do you want to do?
Signed,
The Netroots Platform Committee
--FerrisValyn, jawboneblues, Democracylover in NYC, mem from somerville, catte nappe, wmtriallawyer, Chacounne, wisecrackin, entrepreneur
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Related Links:
See the WholeNetroots Platform (with stats and history!) Online
Netroots Platform Press Release
Platform! Get Your Hot Fresh Platform Here ! (DNC Platform Summary)