Saturday 27th February 2010 Politics (Editor)
2. Get Politically Involved. What to do.

Because I live in Wagoner County, I joined the Wagoner County Republicans about a year and a half ago.  The timing was great. This first meeting invited people to work on the rules or the platform committee. Knowing nothing, I joined the platform committee to find out what their platform was. I'm glad I did.

I have found it very hard to find out what the Democratic party platform is. I could find no document that was the equivalent of the republican's platform. That's sad. I have asked Democratic party members and they say that they don't have one. If someone knows of one, please let me know.

The Wagoner County Republican Party platform can be found HERE.  I would suggest that you print it out, get a marker and go through it stance by stance. I made check marks on each item I agreed with and notes on the ones I didn't or didn't understand to get more information.

In subsequent committee meetings we went over the platform and made some changes and I got clarification of several items. I got to become a delegate to the state convention and learned a lot while attending this event. The state convention is used to reconcile the platforms of the counties into a state platform.

I understand that the state platforms in turn are used to create a national platform. I don't find that document anywhere either however.

Now when I hear, "what good does it do, what does my voice count", I have an answer. It is a ground up organization. What is done locally dictates what is done state wide and in turn, what is done in state wide is carried up nationally.

Politicians, that run under the Republican Party, have to endorse the platform with only a few items excepted. The goal here is to eliminate the RINO's, or Republican In Name Only.

The new norm is to closely monitor what the elected officials do to be sure they are true to their party beliefs. They should be held accountable for their actions after a party helps elect them.