Monday, June 11, 2012

2012 TDP Platform Shows Progressive Direction

Last weekend 2012 Democratic State Convention delegates passed one of the most progressive party platforms ever contemplated by Texas Democrats. Delegates also overwhelmingly elected Judge Gilberto Hinojosa Texas Democratic Party Chair for the next two years.

Hinojosa told convention delegates that the party and the party's candidates must begin to offer the voters of Texas a clear choice to the extreme conservative policies of the Republican Party - and that includes clearly communicating the progressive values of the Democratic Party. At the convention, he shouted from the podium,

“This is a war, folks. This is a war that the Republicans have waged on our families in Texas and all across America, We are a compassionate people. We don’t believe in pulling up the ladder after we reach the top.”

Hinojosa said that while Republicans call Democrats un-American it is in truth Republicans who carried out un-American policies by cutting funding for public education, women's health care, denying citizens their right to vote and opposing civil rights protections for all sexual orientations.

Last November this Blog published an article, "The Texas Democratic Party Needs A New Direction." The article said in part,

"... Perhaps the idea that the TDP's voter base, outside of Austin, is pervasively very conservative - an idea still active espoused by long time Democratic political strategists - is no longer correct. Perhaps the idea that the party and it's candidates must continue to subscribe to conservative policy strategies, shunning all progressive/liberal policy positions, is a strategy that no longer works - even in Texas.

It is, perhaps, time for party leaders to seriously consider whether the party finds itself struggling to attract voters, raise money and attract new candidates, not because it's not conservative enough, but because the Democratic Party offers Texas voters no real and contrasting choice to the extreme conservative Republican brand of politics. ..."

The election of Judge Hinojosa, the party's first Hispanic chair, and TDP's 2012 platform demonstrates that "perhaps" our November 2011 article was prescient. The progressive 2012 platform advocates for controversial issues including calling for the end of the death penalty, decriminalization of marijuana, the legalization of same sex marriage, and more. Read the platform and decide for yourself - below the "more" jump:

TDP's 2012 Platform




Differences Between 2012 Texas Democratic Party Platform and 2012 Republican Party of Texas Platform

No comments:

Post a Comment