After letting the question of the future of the Economic Rights Party kick around in the back of my head for a month, I’ve decided to continue on and put more time into it this coming new year.
But I need to make some changes.
First, I think the name has to change. I wanted to use “party” in the name to convey that the organization, even though focused on a particular economic vision, will have a broader platform and agenda. On reflection I have to admit the word “party” is a turnoff for many people. Political parties in the U.S. are not so much vehicles for political action around a common agenda, rather they have become a signal of personal identity. People are leery of being put in a box that way. Plus political parties as they exist in the modern U.S. almost exclusively (and somewhat futilely) channel citizen action into electoral politics, which people are justly disillusioned with.
Second, I need to step back from trying to organize for action and lay more philosophical groundwork to get thoughtful people to buy into the idea. Maybe publishing more writing or producing videos explaining the political philosophy behind the main ideas are needed, especially as those ideas challenge the ways of thinking about politics that people are more familiar with.
Taken together, this means a name change that conveys this shift in focus. So “party” is out, which means I’ll not only need a new name but a new website address.
As for next steps, I am giving up, for the moment, on trying to develop a local chapter.
But I plan to go forward with creating a broader platform. Here the idea was to generate some proposed policy positions to vote on and then to display the results including how many people voted for or against each proposed platform item. That way a vote of just over 50% of those voting doesn’t become semi-obligatory for everyone who is a member. I saw that as a source of conflict within political parties, especially alternative parties like the Green Party. Instead the vote would be an indicator of the level of support among the membership for the proposal, not a mechanism for obligating even those in the organization who oppose or have strong reservations to it. This allows for ongoing discussion instead of closing discussion off.
After the fumes clear up from the midterm election I will begin to solicit some proposals for a new name and platform ideas and come up with a few myself. Then around late January we can do an online vote, with the results posted on the (new) website. So give some thought to a better name and the policy ideas which ought to be considered.
Hope you are well and persevering through this truly awful political and economic environment.
–Alan
