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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