Last week, we discussed what to do about the Minnesota GOP Platform.
It wasn’t just idle talk. Last weekend at the 3rd CD GOP convention, Derek “Chief” Brigham of Freedom Dogs and True North brought the draft result of the work of a small group of us who wanted to see the platform change to a vote:
Rick Weible who is a Co-Chair at CD3 and I were talking at the SD45 convention and I learned that he also wanted to see this happen, and that the idea was popular with others in leadership. I told him I knew a few guys that would be good to bring in to help draft this thing and so it began. Mitch Berg (CD4), John LaPlante (CD2), Jan Schneider (CD3), Rick and I started a drafting a file that after many, many revisions eventually became the document you see below. Today at the CD3 convention, it passed by a nearly unanimous vote (I only heard one nay from the floor).
It’s very similar to the one I posted here last week:
Proposal from Third Congressional District Republicans of Minnesota
Guiding Principles and Values
Individuals, businesses and the country succeed and prosper when government stays out of the way of those who lead the way with integrity, responsibility, charity, hard work, humility, courage, gratitude and hope.
Government has a role in our society – but that role is carefully enumerated in the United States Constitution. The Republican Party of Minnesota believes that a good government does not eclipse roles that are best carried out by individuals, families, houses of faith, charitable organizations or businesses.
1) America is a great nation; we are the “Shining City,” an exemplar of virtues for all other nations and their people. The greatness of the American nation, the virtues of its people, and the success of the American experiment are a beacon of hope for the entire world.
2) Liberty is essential for our society to advance and prosper. The freedom to explore advances in culture, business, faith, science and government improves all of our lives; on the other hand, excessive government regulation and control hinders that development. The ability and freedom to disagree with each other and our government must also be protected; any hindrances to the free market of ideas will sap the ability of America to advance and to better herself.
3) We believe in the ability of the individual, by themselves or through families, businesses, groups and non-profit organizations, rather than the government to solve the problems of today and lead us into the future.
4) Faith is where we derive our moral compass and come to understand the eternal rules of order and rights which God himself has ordained. We believe each person needs to be free in order to explore his/her Faith.
5) Human Life is sacred; it must be protected at all stages.
6) The Family is among our society’s most important institutions. Government must not be allowed to infringe on the sanctity of the family.
7) The Pursuit of Happiness is essential to our existence; we support equal opportunities not equal results.
8 ) Charity comes best from the heart of individuals and cannot be forced or coerced via taxation and regulation.
9) The law must be applied to everyone equally; no one is above the law.
10) Law abiding citizens must be trusted to defend their life, family and property.
Drafted and submitted April 2010, by Rick Weible (CD3), Derek Brigham (CD3), Mitch Berg (CD4), John LaPlante (CD2), Jan Schneider (CD3)
So what’s the fuss about? Mostly, it’s about giving the people of the party a succinct, clear statement of principles and values.
That’s good in itself, especially should the state party go through some sort of resolutions fight at the state convention and the platform ends up as even more of a beast. Don’t tell me it’s not possible.
As anyone that’s ever been to a MNGOP convention at any level knows, it’s the resolutions fights that drag on and on, as activists – who may or may not be especially experienced at how conventions, parties and platforms work, debate the finer points of resolutions whose sole intent…
…is to go into an already-overlong platform, to make it over-longer.
Now let’s consider a possible future for this document. CD3’s resolutions committee, can now take a vote tested and nearly unanimously approved document to the state resolution meeting to present it as a state party document to consider. They may make changes, or it may get totally shot down by the other CDs, or it may just make it through to the floor of the state convention for a vote as an approved party document.
I hope it comes to State. It’d be a good statement to the delegates and the voters. The GOP’s biggest problem in the past four years, besides dynasty fatigue, was the perception that they’d become a big part of the problem.
As the party goes through the ordeal of cleaning up its act, what could be better than cleaning up its defnining statement?
In case you needed more proof of the problem, the CD1 convention asked the delegates to consider over 260 resolutions forwarded from the BPOU’s. But because the endorsement went 7 hours, the convention voted to adjourn before considering anything.
I had to leave CD4 before we even got to the Congressional endorsement, much less the resolutions – but there were pages and pages of them. I had a headache thinking about it.
I commented on your original post about my concerns with #5. I also spoke with Derek and with Ron Weible about my proposed change, and with an additional Republican thought leader about this issue. Nobody expressed any negative opinion about my change.
I made the motion to delete everything after “protected” in the original language. This passed on a voice vote, but then somebody called for a floor vote. This passed by at least 4:1. A following motion was made to add “at all stages” after “protected”. This pass by a voice vote. There was no debate on either issue other than the statements made when making the motion.
I’d like to get your thoughts to the changes that I was able to make to Item #5.
At the CD5 convention, we spent so much time on speakers and rules and credentials, there were only about 75 minutes at the end we had to debate any resolutions (convention rules stated we had to end at 3pm, no ifs, ands, or buts). And 45 of those 75 minutes were spent on the semantics of one resolution, whether we wanted to amend a plank by removing it entirely or changing the wording. By the time the parliamentarian and resolutions chair and convention headmaster got their shit together, everyone else was so frustrated that someone said screw it, moved to adjourn 15 minutes early and it was carried with a loud, irritated, and unanimous “AYE!” voice vote. So there wasn’t very much contribution coming from CD5 this time around
Still too long..
How about…
We believe in individual Liberty and Justice as laid out in the United States Constitution and will uphold the standards set forth therein.
Like Baron Von Raschke used to say ” an dat is all da people need to know!”
Rick Weible and Derek Brigham did a great job defending the language and intent of the statement at the CD3 convention. Having read your first post, Mitch, I had some foreknowledge of the issue which made the process interesting to watch.
I was particularly fascinated by the back-and-forth over #5. The argument for eliminating everything after “protect” was bolstered after the addition of “at all stages,” which prompted a delegate to observe the point might now be interpreted to oppose capital punishment. Weible, perhaps with a little tongue-in-cheek, affirmed that as a possible interpretation.
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