Those of you who have complaints about how the board is run, the positions the board takes, or the state of the PWC republican party, this is your chance to take those concerns in question form directly to the top. This is NOT a place for personal attacks; I strongly urge everybody to stick to questions about issues, policy, and politics.
This is our chance to show how adults can have real differences and communicate them with respect and purpose, something that too often is lacking in many blogs these days.
Here are the questions I asked:
Sean, thanks for taking the time to answer questions, and for the hard, tireless work you perform for the county.
1. do you feel that blogs such as this one, which encourage personal attacks on both incumbent republican legislators, and republican party activists, help or hurt the republican party?
2. Would you support a more positive-oriented discussion group where all members of the republican party can debate issues, policies, and politics without the vitriol which seems only to divide the party, obscure our message, and impede the election of fellow republicans?
3. The Los Angelos times has a policy that all employees must identify themselves and their affiliation when participating in internet discussions. Do you think that politicians should be as open as the LA Times staff? Put another way, there are rumors that local politicians post anonymously to blogs such as this one. Do you think that politicians should post anonymously to blogs, or should they, being public officials, identify themselves and be held responsible for their comments?
4. The PWC Republican committee took policy positions on several issues before the state and local legislatures. Two-part question: First, do you think that committees should take positions on issues of importance to the members of the committee as a way to inform our elected leaders of our concerns? Second, do think there are ways that we can express our opinions on issues without being accused of attacking our representatives for disagreeing with them?
Thank you in advance for considering my questions and taking the time to respond. I believe that open and transparent dialog between the citizens and their elected leaders is the key to open, honest, and effective government.
2 comments:
I should have taken my own advise. On further review, I find some of my questions suffer from "personality disorder". I assume as fact things that some might consider opinions, and my questions are too leading.
And I should have used "in my opinion" in several places, such as in question #1 -- while I believe the characterization of TC's site is accurate, it does assume motives, something I am generally loathe to do.
So the rest of you, do a better job sticking to the issues.
I re-worked my questions, and posted the revised set over in the discussion thread. This is a great example of how a little positive dialog between parties can make things better. TC did't like my questions and wrote to me, giving me the opportunity to re-evaluate and write what I believe is a better set of questions, more likely to get useful answers.
Here's the new questions, compare them to the old ones to see they are really the "same", just worded differently:
1. This site (TooConservative) has threads which, in my opinion, are devoted to harsh, personal attacks on certain incumbent republican legislators, and republican party activists — often in the name of party unity. Do you think it helps or hurts our party to have these personal discussions in “public”?
2. Do you see blogs offering the possibility of positive-oriented discussion groups where members of the republican party can debate issues, policies, and politics without personal animosities interfering?
3. There are rumors that local politicians post anonymously to blogs such as this one. Do you think that politicians should post anonymously to blogs, or should they identify themselves and take credit for their comments?
I also have two questions related to the PWC Republican committee’s involvement in policy matters, since the committee took policy positions on several issues before the state and local legislatures.
4. How do you feel about the committee taking positions on issues of importance to the members of the committee as a way to inform our elected leaders of our concerns?
5. How do you think the committee can express our opinions on issues in a way that strengthens the party and helps our incumbent republicans, i.e. so it isn’t seen as an attack on our representatives?
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