Good Morning, Bruce

We have at least four people who agree with some version of the idea that parties are anti-democratic (you, PVR, Roy Daine and myself). That leads me to ask if something would be possible, even though I haven't a clue about how it can be done.

Is there a way to develop a set of precepts and make them readily available for modification and reference?

THE RATIONALE
Although the four of us (and, possibly, many more) agree that parties are anti-democratic, our agreement gets lost in the tons of verbiage that surround the expression of our view and the responses to it. Others, who come later to the discussion, must dig through the verbiage to get the sense of each poster's position.

Each of us expressed our views in different ways even though (I believe) we all meant the same thing. If we had the means to present (what we believe to be) a sound precept and others could edit our presentation to refine it by making it crisper or more complete, we would, in time, build a set of important ideas. The person who edits an entry should descibe the reason for making the change, and the set of reasons should be available to anyone interested in accepting or challenging the precept.

Such a mechanism might become too confrontational. Still, it would be nice if we could refine any conclusions we reach. Can someone suggest a less ponderous method?

Re: "Clean Elections"
I do not (as yet) support public funding for campaigns. As far as I can see, it simply reduces the costs borne by the parties and gives them more money to manipulate the public and our government.

The attempt to ban of soft money sounds good, too, but the money is simply moved from party coffers to Political Action Committees where it is used to the same effect. We need to recognize that, as long as we allow campaign-based politics, the corruptible power of money will continue to dominate politics. Changing the source won't change the result, because the concept of campaigning is fundamentally flawed, and ...

We can not legislate morality!

Contradictory as it may sound, I support Common Cause in its effort to clean up the political infrastructure in the United States. They are doing something NOW, while I merely ponder the problems and possible solutions.

Fred