Build-a-Party
Overall I am pleased with the final proposal my group (Group 6) came up with. If the premise of a Republican Party collapse were a reality, I would suspect that something like our party would be its replacement. Apparently other groups felt the same way, as it looks like every single group chose to build a party to take over the wake of a Republican collapse, and every group contained some element of a more socially liberal and true economic conservatism. Given the recent election results this isn't particularly suprising - choosing the GOP to collapse was the obvious choice since the Democrats just won the presidency and held both houses of Congress.
The platforms of each group's party were oriented towards different main issues but, again, tended towards social liberalism and fiscal conservatism. With everyone working with the premise that the GOP had collapsed, electoral strategies were focused on what the redrawn political map would look like for this new party if it could not reliably count on support of the old Republican base in the South and Great Plains. I know that our group and a couple of others addressed specifically the potential impact of smaller splinter parties under this hypothetical scenario and I think that is an important note, particularly with respect to expectations of party viability. It is almost easier to conceive of a new party candidate competing for (if not winning) the presidency in order to promote legitimacy for the congressional party candidates.
Group Work
The group member with whom I co-authored these two assignments was pro-active in setting and showing up to meeting times, reliable in coming to the table with ideas, and willing to put in time to get the job done. I couldn't ask for more. Were there supposed to be 4 people in the group? Yeah. Oh well. Being unconvinced that more is necessarily merrier, I would just reiterate that the group interactions that did take place were informative and productive. We intially met during the first project thru campfire.org, and used that as our meeting place each time after that to discuss or combine ideas. It would have even been easy for group members who weren't there to catch up and get on the next time we met since we posted transcripts and planned meetings through the D2L group messageboard. I am not sure if I can make any overly positive or negative generalizations based on these group projects about political communication and organization over the internet. As an asset to a team or group organizing effort the internet is absolutely a positive, but the motivation to organize still has to exist for people to take full advantage of it. People who want to be tuned in are tuned in - those who don't...aren't.
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6 comments:
I agree with you that the people that want to be tuned in, are and those who do not tune in are not involved. Working over the internet depends on the same amount of interaction that would occur in a face to face situation. I do on the other hand believe that a lot more can be accomplished face to face rather than online.
D2L is just an extremely poor tool for collaboration of this kind and serves more as a barrier then as a facilitating technology.
Our group did the same thing with the Republican party collapse and what would the next party be like. I see a reinvention of the REpublican party coming
"D2L is just an extremely poor tool for collaboration of this kind and serves more as a barrier then as a facilitating technology."
I don't totally agree with that...of course, my group didn't use D2L as our only source of communication. It was useful as a place to centralize information (or would have been, if other people who weren't at our live chats had desired to use it as such). I guess I just don't see D2L itself as a barrier anymore than someone not showing up to class, work, or face-to-face meetings. Granted, the internet is easier to ignore than live people sitting with you in class or calling you, but if they aren't interested people will ignore that too.
i like the idea of your group replacing the Republican party, making a new one. i think that would help to build it back up.Most importantly, s lot more can get accomplished face to face.
Thanks Matt, you were a kick-ass group member, too. :) Despite my whining, I now realize that more isn't always merrier when it comes to group work and felt like it was overall a pretty positive experience. I agree with your last comment about D2L, too. I think the design is a little clunky, but overall it can be a great tool. Or at least a good jumping off point to arrange other means of online communication (like Campfire).
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