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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sue Lani Madsen: Party platforms have value for marketing, mission, even if they have no teeth

Sue Lani Madsen, an architect and rancher, will write opinion for the Spokesman-Review on an occasional basis.  Photo taken Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015.  JESSE TINSLEY jesset@spokesman.com (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

Recent political conventions convinced a friend to actually read a national party platform. Even I’ve never done that; national platforms are a long and tedious read.

A political platform means both more and less than most people think it does. No one is accountable to party platforms. At a national level, it’s about the process more than results.

For a statewide candidate facing 39 county platforms plus a state platform, there are differences in emphasis and occasionally a few clear conflicts. Even a multicounty legislative or congressional district will have conflicting nuances between platforms. Party platforms make poor scorecards.

Still, lack of candidate accountability doesn’t make them meaningless. A platform functions as a mission statement for the independent political organizations at county, state and national levels. When they are well-written, platforms sharply communicate core principles to those outside the group and work as outreach and recruitment tools.

That’s how it’s used to play offense. Platform builders are also prepared to play defense. Here’s where obfuscation comes into play. Being a little fuzzy avoids giving the other side a clear target.

Platforms aren’t identical across a party because “the party” isn’t monolithic, whether you’re talking about Democrats, Republicans or Libertarians. Political parties are made up of people who pay attention between elections, not the mass of independents who will eventually swing an election. Each political party has a national committee, state committees, and in most cases county or congressional district committees. Each level of platform reflects the character and concerns of those who showed up and participated in the process.

Fuzziness may also reflect divisions within the party, or at least within the platform committee tasked with its design. Platforms are negotiated and written by committees, attacked and modified in convention floor fights by disappointed delegates who weren’t on the platform committee, and adopted by a group as a whole at each level.

National platform committees turn into the last battleground between competing nominees seeking language both sides can live with. The goal is to make the proverbial “big tent” big enough to hold as many factions as possible. For yes or no issues like to frack or not to frack, there is no fuzzy way and the divisions are exposed. We saw that at the Democratic National Convention, where the platform committee chairman was heckled over platform planks some Sanders delegates couldn’t live with.

The Libertarian Party of Washington has the shortest platform, with five brief statements of principle. It’s hard to argue with statements like wanting “a system which encourages all people to choose what they want from life; that lets them live, love, work, play, and dream their own way.”

The Washington state Republican Party has a medium-size platform with 17 sections, each headed by a statement of principle backed up by the smaller planks. Section 7 has always been controversial within the party, calling for a study of returning to the gold standard and an audit of the Federal Reserve Bank.

The Washington state Democrats approved a platform this year with 13 main sections, but 55 pages of detail. Not surprising for the party that supports bigger government and more regulation as the solution to problems. It’s not so much a statement of principles as a shopping list of programs and legislation. Under the section on Reining in Wall Street and Fixing Our Financial System, the platform supports “a financial transactions tax on Wall Street to curb excessive speculation and high-frequency trading, which has threatened financial markets. We acknowledge that there is room within our party for a diversity of views on a broader financial transactions tax.” Maybe it is possible to say yes and no in the same platform.

Sometimes the lack of clarity is in the eye of the beholder. Insiders have a particular understanding of how key words are used in a party platform, because they’ve been part of the process by showing up. Independents may have a harder time reading between the lines.

Individual candidates also build platforms reflecting their point of view and values. It’s a personal document, even if others help with the process. Candidates stand for election on their personal and not their party platforms. They can be held accountable by voters to their personal planks later if elected.

Savvy party platform committees hope to encourage voters to use preferred party as a key determinant in how they vote. Well-written platforms capture basic principles while leaving room for principled variation between candidates. Choosing a political party is just a way of finding generally like-minded people. For voters, it’s a shortcut to reading every individual candidate’s platform.

Political parties aren’t a mysterious secret society. Their members are your neighbors who choose to stay involved even when there isn’t a high-profile campaign at stake.

Voters often insist they want nothing to do with party politics, they want to remain independent. Sometimes claiming to be independent is just an excuse for not showing up.

Based on the miserable ballot return statistics for the primary election, a whole lot of people haven’t shown up yet. If you’re one of them, you have all weekend to get your research done. Do it online, go to the library or phone a friend, but just do it by Tuesday.

Columnist Sue Lani Madsen can be reached at rulingpen@gmail.com or on Twitter: @SueLaniMadsen.