by Michael Ossipoff

The Occupy-Movement has conducted an internal poll, on political parties. It’s a good idea, but we’re now conducting a poll specifically about party platforms. That’s because the platforms themselves, what the parties actually offer, are the crucially relevant factor, for choice among the political parties.  For that reason, our poll is announced as a poll on party-platforms. To emphasize that, our ballot includes direct links to the platforms.

We request that you read, or look at, at least one or a few of the platforms, including at least one or two of the non-Republocrat platforms. Of course, in the case of the Republocrats (Republicans and Democrats), their actions in office probably speak more loudly than their platforms.  Because a long list of parties could make it prohibitively time-consuming to read platforms, we’re only including four platforms in our poll:  Democrat, Republican, Green (GPUS), and Libertarian.

We’re conducting a rank balloting (rank the platforms in order of preference), in the comments section below. The rank balloting will be counted by Symmetrical ICT, a method that arguably best avoids strategic need to rank other than sincerely. Voting instructions is below:

To vote in the rank-balloting poll on party-platforms, here is what you’d do:

1. Go to the “comments” section at the bottom of this page.

2. Register if necessary. Click to “reply” to our “comment” that has the voting instructions.

3. Vote as described in the voting instructions given in our “comment”.

Read the platforms that are linked to below from the list of party platforms.   Because, unlike the Democrats and Republicans, the Greens and Libertarians don’t have a (good or bad) track record, it’s particularly important to look at their platforms. Looking at platforms is crucial to finding out what is offered by parties.  Here are links to the party platforms in the order they were presented in Google Search:

• The Republican Party Platform 
• The Democratic Party Platform
• The Libertarian Party Platform
• The Green Party of the United States Platform

Judge for yourself whether the Democrats’ and Republicans’ track records are good or bad, in comparison to the platform proposals of the Greens and Libertarians.  You can rank as many or as few platforms as many platforms as you want to.

You’re free to rank as many as you want at any rank position, though, to find the most popular platform, it would be best to rank them all in sincere order of preference.  In particular, of course you ran rank as many platforms in first place as you want to. So, if you felt that it were necessary to rank a compromise in first place, you’d still be able to rank your favorite in first place too.

With our count method, Symmetrical ICT, you have no reason to not rank your favorite in 1st place.  Though you can rank as many platforms as you want to, with out count method you have no strategic reason or need to rank any unacceptable candidates. Your ranking will fully count against any candidates whom you don’t rank.

So to sum up: Reply to this “comment”, by clicking “Reply” below. Then, in your comment-space, rank as many platforms as you want to, by writing them in a vertical, numbered list.

For instance:

1. [Your favorite platform goes here]
2. [Your 2nd favorite platform goes here]
3. [Your 3rd favorite platform goes here]
4. [Your last choice goes here]

Enjoy!