Periodically, I like to review some of my political beliefs and thoughts, and today, I thought I would check out how well I align myself with various political parties. I did this once before, quite a few years ago, but at that time I included only the two main parties (and perhaps the Libertarian party). Today, I wanted to expand the list of parties. The parties that I’m most interested in and wanted to review are: Republican party, Democratic party, Libertarian party, Green party, Constitution party, and Socialist party. My interest is not necessarily because I align with them, but because of my perception on the role that these political ideologies have played around the world in the past, or might play going forward. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, I want the voices of these parties heard, and in order to hear them, I have to be at least somewhat familiar with them.

I wanted to see how I currently align with the different parties, and by that, I mean with their official statement of their ideology (NOT necessarily how the various candidates are adhering to those positions). To do that, I chose to just read each of the “official” statements of their party platform, and while I’m reading it, when I encounter a statement I agree with, I’ll give them points (more points for a statement that I more strongly agree with) or take away points for statements I disagree with. At the end, I’ll tally up the points and normalize them based on the number of words that I read. This is not meant to be overly scientific, but just a quick and dirtly way to reacquaint myself with the different parties.

Here are the results:

Party	Platform Document(s)	Score	Words	Adjusted Score
Socialist	https://socialistcurrents.org/?page_id=18 https://socialistcurrents.org/documents-public/Statement-Domestic.pdf (pg 2-3)	13	2093	6.2
Constitution	https://constitutionparty.com/principles/three-pillars/ https://constitutionparty.com/principles/seven-principles/	21	1923	10.9
Green	https://www.gp.org/we_stand https://www.gp.org/ten_key_values	16	2882	5.5
Libertarian	https://www.lp.org/platform/	39	3333	11.7
Democratic	https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/preamble-2/	5	1313	3.8
Republican	https://prod-static.gop.com/media/RNC2024-Platform.pdf	-10	1279	-7.8

Some notes about the documents. It would be nice if parties had a short description of their ideology that really covered all the main points of their party. When I last read the party platform documents (which was more than 10 years ago, and possibly as much as 20), both platform documents contained the philosophical description of the party. At that time, I was clearly more closely aligned with the Republican party than the Democratic party. Recalling that earlier reading is actually what triggered this comparison because I wanted to see where I aligned now, and I wanted to expand the experiment to include other parties. I had expected to be able to find similar official documents that summarized the philosophy of the party.

This proved to be more of a challenge thatn I expected. To be completely honest, the Libertarian party was the only party that had one solid document that clearly outlined the philosophy of the party. The Socialist, Green, and Constitution parties did fairly well, but I still had to read two different documents for each to get a broad enough overview of their ideologies. However, both of the main parties seem to have entirely abandoned a philosophical basis, or at least, I could not find one on either of their web sites. Their ‘platform’ documents are not much more than a description of issues they want to address. The Democratic party was the worst example. Their party platform document is 90 pages long! There were points in there that I would like to acknowledge (by giving them either positive or negative points), but my investment in this project did not extend to reading a 90 page document! As such, I read their preamble which is by no means a complete description of the Democratic party, but the closest I could find to an overview. Perhaps even worse though was the fact that it was a preamble to a document specifically for THIS election. It was not an overview of the overall party philosophy or what the long term hopes of the party are. The Republican party was almost as bad. Their party platform was only 28 pages, but also strongly focused on this election. So I read the preamble there too (the first 4 pages of the platform document).

Reading the platform documents for the Libertarian party was exhilerating. It was a reminder of what I truly belive, and a hope that there are other people who also do so. Reading the platform documents for the Constitution, Socialist, and Green parties was enlightening. In them, I saw minority groups expressing hopes and ideas that they hope will lead to a brighter future. I do not agree with many of their ideas, but their points are valid, and their voices need to be heard… and listened too.

Reading the Democratic and Republican platform papers was disturbing. Both parties have replaced the platform documents I read more than a decade ago with a platform specifically for this election. Both documents focused heavily on the perceived negatives of the other party, and how their ideas will correct the problems caused by the other party. Both documents were critical of the other party, but in a angry spiteful way. There was no hint of cooperation or reconciliation. Both documents clearly show that these parties have completely lost their way, and neither are in any way suitable to lead this country. We’ve heard “Make America Great Again” over and over. Well, neither of these parties have a foundational philosophy that will enable them to accomplish this. Without a base philosophy; without an idea of who they are and who they hope to be in the future, both parties are rudderless boats on a stormy ocean.

I was particularly disturbed reading the Republican platform. I grew up in a Republican environment and early on, I identified myself as Republican. Even though I stopped identifying myself as such in my 20’s, I still felt far closer to the Republican party than I did to the Democratic party. Unfortunately, the current Republican party platform, it is so filled with implied (and not so implied) hatred of the Democratic party it almost makes me ashamed to have ever supported that party. It is true that I see many of the same problems in the Democratic party. The Democratic platform document has just as much angry criticism of Trump as the Republican platform has for Biden. But since I have felt closer to the Republican philosophy, the departure from that philosophy feels more like a betrayal to me. In addition, it is my perception (coming from someone who does not support either party), that the anger and hatred is manifested more from the Republican party than the Democratic party.

Going into this, I would have made several predictions:

• I expected the Libertarian party to be the most closely aligned with my personal philosophy. This happened, but I was a bit surprised at how close the Constitution party came. I will say that I still feel that I am more significantly aligned with the Libertarian party because of their focus. Libertarians believe that individual rights are the focus, and they praise the constitution because of how well it protects those rights. The Constitution party is focused on the constitution. As much as I like the constitution (and support it), I prefer to focus on the principles that the constitution serves, rather than the constitution itself.
• If any party got a negative vote, I expected it to be the Socialist party. I was quite surprised at how high I rated it. The socialist party has certainly changed a lot, especially it’s very vocal opposition to communism. The fact that it actually came out third in this group is a shock to me. I will say that even though a number of the statements in their platform resonated well with me (hence the rating), the party still does not sit well with me due to their focus on social improvements over individual rights. I would not vote for them, but I would be happy to have their voice heard in the government.
• I expected the Republican party to come out higher than the Democratic party (and certainly higher than the Socialist and Green parties). This was based on my childhood exposure to Republican beliefs, and my reading of the party platform documents a number of years ago. Although I have felt for some time that the Republican party was distancing itself from so many of the good ideas the party was founded on, and though I have also felt that the majority of the anger and divisiveness that I see originated from the Republican party, I had no idea that the party would express that anger so explicitly in their platform.

My takeaways:

• As usual, I will be voting for someone who’s ideology matches my own. That will certainly be the Libertarian candidate. I would encourage anyone who feels distanced from the main parties to join me. Until we vote for a third party, there will not be a third party.
• In previous elections, when I viewed the list of candidates, affiliation with the Libertarian party was always a plus. Affiliation with either the Republican or Democratic party was neither a plus or a minus. Since I disagreed with both parties equally, I would compare those candidates only on their stand on issues. Party played little or no role in my vote. Going into this election, I have to say that that will no longer be true. Anyone who would base their political philosophy on anger and hatred will no longer receive my vote. When I review a candidates platform, if that candidate’s statements are filled with anger and hatred, they will NOT receive my vote. If there is not a candidate who can speak civilly about the OTHER party; who cannot recognize that there is value to hearing the opposing ideas offered by THEM; they will not receive my vote. If that means that there are races where I see no viable candidate, for the first time in my life, I will not vote for either party. Just to be clear, I won’t exclude a candidate simply based on the party platform. I will only exclude them based on their own statements. If they speak in anger or hatred of their opponent, I will not vote for them. Sadly, I expect that this will mean that I will be voting for very few (perhaps zero) Republican candidates based on what I am seeing.

My wish:

As I have said many times in the past (just refer to my past blog posts), the most damaging aspect of the current political environment is the extreme divisiveness between the parties. If I discovered Aladdin’s lamp and were given a political wish, it would be that there be three (or more) parties with significant presence in our political environment. I would love to see a Republican presence of around 30%, a Democratic presence of around 30%, and another 40% split between 2 or 3 other parties. If no party had a 51% majority, this would force ALL of the parties to talk to each other; to cooperate and compromise. The ideas that would be the results of 2 or 3 parties working together would be far superior to the ideas that are being pushed by either of the main parties working alone. 2 or 3 party ideas will foster connection and understanding. Those are the ideas that will make America great, NOT the ideas promoted solely by the Republican or Democratic party.