Earlier this month, Jon Kantrowitz posted a diary on MyLeftNutmeg entitled, The Connecticut Democratic Party Platform - Can We Do Better?. The diary received five different comments. Two were about content, and three were about process. Bruce Rubenstein wrote, that people “would have better success meeting with candidates and getting them to commit to progressive issues then worrying about a document that wont be read after the Convention.” Others wrote about the workings of the platform committee and expressed the view that concerns about the platform would not be heard. All of this begs an important question, do platforms matter?

I would like to suggest that what matters might not be the platform itself, but the discussion about the platform. This discussion can take place online. It can take place in meetings with candidates, in face to face gathering, or in smoke filled backrooms. How these discussions take place says a lot about the transparency and the invitation to become involved that candidates and parties make, or fail to make.

As a person advocating greater governmental transparency, I believe a good starting point is in transparency at the party level. Back in 2004, I ran a website, platform.smartcampaigns.com. It is no longer up, but is available on archive.org. We listed as much information as we could get about delegates to the convention, as well as to the various committees, like rules, credentials and platform. We posted various copies of platforms from 2000 and 2004 and talked together online about what better platform planks would be. Various amendments that were discussed ended up being adopted by the platform committee. We can argue about whether or not it really made any difference, but I consider it part of the movement towards opening up the Democratic Party as well as the broader movement towards increased government transparency.

Can we foster such a discussion here in Connecticut as we approach our State Democratic Convention? The Platform Committee is reportedly meeting Monday evening at 6 PM at State Central. The convention starts in less than a week. It seems like we won’t have as much of a chance to open up the process and the discussion as we did at the national level in 2004, but there is still a chance.

Hopefully, members of the platform committee will report back to their constituents about the meeting and solicit more involvement in the establishing the platform, and ultimately in the discussions and activities around who our next statewide elected officials should be. Hopefully, candidates can use these discussions to invite more people to become involved with their campaigns and encourage people to look at the issues and not the personalities of the candidates. Hopefully all of this can be a step in returning our country to a government of, by and for the people.

(Cross-posted at MyLeftNutmeg.)