WELCOME

The Massachusetts Democratic Party is revising its Platform, as it does every four years, and you are cordially invited to help. The Platform is a document that sets forth a set of basic principles that reflect the values of the party as a whole. The new Platform will be submitted to the Party's delegates for a vote at the State Convention on June 6, 2009.

This blog is a key part of the process of revising the Platform. Below, you will find the entire current Platform of the Massachusetts Democratic Party laid out plank by plank. You can offer your comments on any, or all, of the current planks simply by clicking on the "comments" link on each post. You can also offer general comments that do not relate specifically to individual planks in the "general comments" thread. All comments submitted to this blog will become part of the testimony considered by the party in revising the Platform.

There are other ways to participate in the revision process, which we hope will be more open and inclusive than ever before. As in the past, there will be a public hearing at which representatives of the state party will be present to hear testimony. However, this year the party is also encouraging all registered Democrats around the state to host their own Platform meetings. These meetings can be held anywhere -- in a high school gymnasium, in a neighborhood coffee shop, or even in your own living room. Click here to learn all about this exciting new process, and to find out how to host a Platform meeting.

The Platform is divided into a preamble and twelve categories, including education, health care, labor, and other key issues. If you are particularly interested in a specific category, you can click the appropriate link in the "categories" list to the right, and that will bring up all the planks in that category.

A couple of rules: first, we reserve the right to delete comments that we consider to be disruptive. We do not require or expect that comments must agree with every plank in the Platform -- in fact, we expect that there will be disagreement, and we encourage diverse points of view. But we do insist that comments be civil, and be offered in the spirit of constructive discussion.

Second, we are using the current Platform as a jumping-off point for discussion, not as a template for the revised version. The new Platform will probably look quite different from the current one, and you should not be surprised if planks in the current Platform are reorganized, revised, or deleted when the new Platform is announced.

Finally, we encourage you to tell us who you are by leaving your name, your home town, and your party affiliation in your comment. Anonymous comments will be considered for what they are worth, but comments with a real person behind them will naturally tend to carry more weight.

Thank you very much for participating in this important process. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

The Massachusetts Democratic Party Platform Committee
Cathy Ashton, co-chair
Jarrett Barrios, co-chair
Janet Beyer, co-chair
David Kravitz, co-chair
Barry Lawton, co-chair

The Massachusetts Democratic Party Public Policy Committee
The Honorable Jamie Eldridge, co-chair
Elaine Kamarck, co-chair

John Walsh, Party Chair
Stacey Monahan, Executive Director

GENERAL COMMENT THREAD

On this thread, you can leave general comments about the Platform as a whole, about categories that are not included but that you think should be, and any other comments that do not fit within the specific planks set out below.