First Goal

What may the biggest surprise of localparty.org is that we avoid going for the superseats. It may turn out to be the biggest strength for the Local Parties. With focusing on districts that are affordable — the smaller city and county districts — the Local Parties will not need to rely on the big bucks. Naturally any election costs money, but the bigger the district election, like the seat of mayor, the more money is required to get a good chance of winning that seat. We all know that the more money is needed for a win, the more chance of corruption and a tendency to focus away from local interests. By going after the local district seats only, the playing field is leveled for all members of the Local Parties. Voters will know what we stand for; we are here for them.

There are various reasons why the Local Party should be different from the other unsuccessful grass roots organizations because the political freedom in California delivers only a small window for reform; so we need to start out with an immediate benefit. One of the ways is this approach to immediately connect and thus represent the local needs. By having candidates running only for the regular seats, and not for the leadership seats the Local Party will always be committed to the local needs because it can stay away from the political entanglements that come with the top-level seats. No candidate will run in name of the Local Party for the Mayor's seat (or only run to turning that seat into a ceremonial position). We also do not intend to run for any of the state seats, and only after the Local Party has established itself in various parts of the state will a separate party be established for what is basically a different political animal, the state level. Localparty.org believes that the regular seats are not only easier to obtain, are less costly than the seat of mayor, but true power should also lie with these regular seats. By electing the body, and not the head, each Local Party stands up for full connection with the voters, and by limiting itself to the regular local government seats we stop the dilution of power we currently encounter in California.

Another way in which the Local Party distinguishes itself from others is that the overall ideology is not based on one ideology that fits all Local Parties. The Local Party is the party that wants to be the promoter of local interests, and will therefore bend to what is locally desired. Whether that appears to be Democratic or Republican, Reform or Green, or something completely different simply is not an issue; what direction is appropriate in this location, may not be appropriate in that location. This means that each Local Party can be based on different ideas and directions, but what all Local Parties have in common is that they are truly based on the local needs. As such, the Local Party can never become a national or state party since it will not have a common platform of ideology on that level. This is the primary goal of the Local Party; it wants to represent the local needs.

To simply demonstrate the discrepancy between representation and the actual representatives, one look at how many female mayors preside over the 100 biggest cities in the United States will suffice: twelve. The mayor, the governor, and the president are all people in professions tied in with the larger platforms and more subject to special interests. They must also often bend and deliver their party loyalty to further their own careers even when that goes against the local needs. The groups of special interests are able to exert a lot of influence on that single highest presiding person in need of raising money, while it is a lot harder for these special interest groups to exert control over the holders of every seat in the city and county governments. The Local Party helps local people retain their influence by disconnecting the bipartisan specialized interest link between the different levels; we consider these murky connections the reasons for sustained local corruption.

Though the Local Party will already function well within the current setup, what the Local Party ultimately wants are city-managers, not mayors that have too much singular power. Several locations have city-managers already, and our political desire is therefore already framed within California's legislation. Of course the Local Party may deliver a voice for who it would like as a mayor, but it does not provide a candidate specifically in the name of the Local Party. You could say that not going for the top positions is a weakness, but given the immobility of democratic freedom in California that we are experiencing today it may work out to be the best plus there is to get the representatives we want. Electing the body, and supporting the body as the fundament of representation, forces the head to become a healthy manager of that body. And it certainly makes for one heck of a reason to trust your local representatives: because our representatives are locally grown — and eaten!

For the Local Party the wish to modernize the democratic process is a goal that will take a back seat to the local needs. It will already be a great improvement if the ties that restrict our representatives can get severed by electing our own representative from the Local Party. Yet participation may be all it takes. When the party that has been in control for many years in a row understands that it has to represent the people the best way it can — or lose out to the contestant of the Local Party — it will automatically remain close to what the people need.

In the mean time we are actively working for our local needs as members and volunteers of the Local Party. We can stand up and deliver a voice to what it is that we locally need. Top

 

 

 

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