The Democratic and Republican Conventions

Can the yet uncompleted plans for the Democratic and Republican conventions help the American voter determined ideological differences between the parties??

Many Americans believe the Democratic and Republican parties have very different priorities and objectives that focus on completely different segments of society. For instance, the Democratic Party message has often been geared toward the middle-class blue-collar working person with a family to raise and a mortgage to pay. It’s said the Democratic Party has often favored unions that helped protect workers rights and working conditions on the job. The Democratic Party is also seen as the party less interested in money and more interested in civil rights protections for minority segments of our society.

On the other hand, many believe the Republican Party message seems directed toward the bigger business and multi-million dollar corporations. The Republican Party has often claimed it is small as well as large businesses that make our standard of living possible. Many republicans believe that such things as tax breaks for investors and corporations will encourage more business and thereby give more American their slice of the “American Pie”. For these and other reasons the Republican Party is, therefore, seen as being more interested in big money and less interested in the middle class worker.

It would appear that preparations for the political conventions back up these the assumptions many Americans have of the two major parties. So far the Denver, Colorado, based Democratic Party Convention committee has “struggled to top $25 million” and so it is about $15 million short of the $40.6 million that is needed. As the article goes on to point out part of the reason for this shortfall is, “We’ve got to deal with the fact that there is belt-tightening all across corporate America,” Mr. Lopez said. “They are reducing spending, and that has had a big impact. We are no different than others trying to raise money in this environment. Everyone is facing it.” So the Democratic Party seems to be short on money but is definitely not hurting for convention volunteers. It seems, “As many as 25,000” have registered to volunteer during the August Convention. The article goes on to inform people that “As a result of the large volunteer base, some early decisions have been made: Most volunteers will be assigned to work a maximum of four hours during the convention.” It seems that for average Americans money may not be readily available but giving of their time is something they can and are willing to do.

The Republican Party seems to have approached the planning of their party convention with very different priorities. Republicans have had no problems convincing the party loyal to open their check books to the tune of $31 million to cover the costs of their convention that will be held in St. Paul, Minnesota, in September. So paying the bills at the republican convention will apparently not be an issue. What does seem to be an issue for republicans though is convincing people to volunteer to work as airport greeters, direction givers and other essential posts. The article goes on to point out that republicans have only “…recruited 4,000 of the 10,000 volunteers they need for a fully staffed convention. The differences in the major political party philosophy seems apparent in the statement, "We focused on raising the money first and getting the volunteers second and that's a good thing," Rybak said. It’s apparent that one major party initially concentrated on people and their volunteer efforts in accomplishing a common goal. Now, that same party must play catch up in reaching their financial goal with the same level of success. The other major party began by concentrating on raising the money they needed. That party must now try to convince people to volunteer in rolling out the red carpet for an effort not many seem to have a passion for. Could these different approaches to the same goal of a political party convention tell the American voter something they should be aware about these two parties?? If there is a lesson in all of this let’s hope the American voter realizes the object of that lesson before November?? Our collective future depends of Americans being informed voters.