Activity 4 – Party Platform

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Activity 4 – Material Links

ACTIVITY FOUR: PARTY PLATFORM

OBJECTIVE:

To have students develop a party platform for their party affiliation that will be submitted to the Party Platform Committee for the Kids Voting Mock Party Convention.

MATERIALS:

  • The Republican Party Platform can be found at

2024 Republican Party Platform | The American Presidency Project (ucsb.edu)

GET READY:

  • Review the information from the Democratic and Republican websites on political parties to enhance your knowledge of the most current party platforms.
  • Make copies of the two party’s platforms for your students.

INSTRUCTIONS:

  • Explain to your students what a party platform is. According to Wikipedia, a party platform, or platform “is a list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said peoples’ candidates voted into political office or the professed opinion(s) proposed as part of law(s) or otherwise made into social policies.”  This often takes the form of a list of support for, or opposition to, socially relevant, urgent, controversial, or complicated topics or issues.  Individual topics, and a party’s, person’s, or organization’s opinion on them are often called the “planks” of their platform in reference to a basic stage made of boards or planks of wood, like what can be assembled for public speaking or debates to be held on.
  • Assign party platform issues to smaller workgroups in each party for purposes of developing a proposed position paper.
  • Positions on the individual issues must reflect the party philosophy and should be no less than one-half of a type-written page or more than one page in length.
  • Have each small group present their position or read the other positions so the entire class can caucus to determine their Party Platform.
  • Identify the Party Platforms for each party.
  • Email each Party Platform to [email protected].

LIST OF TOP ISSUES

Below is a list of the top issues that have been identified on the Kids Voting High School Civic Engagement survey. These issues are to be discussed in small groups as potential platform issues.

1.     Roe vs Wade 8. Legalizing Marijuana
2.     Gun control 9. Book Banning
3.     Mental Health 10. Immigration
4.     Environment 11. LGBTQ+ Issues
5.     Race Relations 12. Foreign Policy
6.     Jobs/Economy 13. Vaccine Mandates
7.     Poverty 14. Terrorism/Homeland Security

POSSIBLE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  • How important are political party platforms in defining a political party?
  • What happens if all members of a political party do not agree with every position outlined in a political party platform?
  • What happens if elected officials do not support every position outlined in their political party platform?
  • How do the platforms of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party differ?
  • Are political party platforms relevant in today’s system of government?