Political Parties Assignment
A partys “platform” is its official statement of beliefs and values. Most members of a political party including its elected officials – have never read their partys platform. A widely-held view among campaign professionals and political consultants is that a partys platform can never help its candidates, but can hurt them if it contains provisions that are considered controversial by swing voters.
Your professors view is that party platforms are generally written by the most conservative Republicans and the most liberal Democrats since those are the only party members devoted enough to hang around party conventions long enough to argue and vote on the platform provisions.
Do party platforms really mean anything? Is there really any difference?
Find the most recent platforms of the Republican Party of Texas and the Texas Democratic Party. You can get them from the state party websites:
http://www.txdemocrats.org/
Write a brief essay (the usual, 2 – 5 pages double-spaced…). Describe the similarities and differences in the two documents. Most importantly, tell me what you would use from each partys platform in a campaign AGAINST its candidates if you were working for the other side.
Submit in Word. Cite your sources.
(Important note: As we’re doing this assignment, the Republican Party of Texas website isn’t working. No problem – I’ve put the 2020 Texas Republican Party platform in our module. Get it from there instead of from the party website.)
Additional Resources
Texas Tribune wrote about the state Republican platform in 2018: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/16/texas-republican-platform-bathroom-bill-constitutional-carry/
Texas Tribune also did a nice platform comparison: https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2018/party-platforms/
Both parties seem to be moving toward embracing marijuana legalization: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article215733420.html
