What To Do To Make A Change

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth (both here and elsewhere) about Governor Green Jeans and his slavish devotion to the religion of man made global warming. There has also been much wailing and gnashing of teeth (both here and elsewhere) about the leftward drift of the Minnesota GOP. Which leads to the following question...what do we, the average voters, do to try to exert some influence over the Governor, the Legislature and the party in order to "correct" the problems that we see? I am sooooooo glad that you asked!

First thing you have to do is get to caucus on February 5!!!! That is the first and most important step. During the course of the night, platform resolutions will be discussed. Platform resolutions is the way that the grassroots activists have to tell the party what issues are important to you!
So how do you submit platform resolutions? At caucus, you will find a newspaper like hand out that contains the platform (an online copy of it can be found here). Go through the platform first to see if there are not already resolutions in the platform that govern what you are talking about. There may also be one already on the books that can be modified to help refine the point. On the back of that newspaper like hand out there will be a form that you can use to submit your resolution (you can also submit it on a regular sheet of paper). All platfor resolutions must fit into one of the 9 existing platform planks.

1) Creating Jobs and Economic Prosperity
2) Preserving Our Civil Rights
3) Educating our Children
4) Strengthening Families and Communities
5) Protecting the Public’s Safety
6) Strengthening the Rule of Law
7) Enjoying & Protecting our Natural Resources
8) Making Government Better, Not Larger
9) Defending America at Home & Abroad

So you have a resolution in mind and you want to submit it. You have checked and it fits under platform plank #1.

Section 1 - Creating Jobs and Economic Prosperity: Controlling Taxes,Spending,
and Regulation
Republicans believe that limited government is the best government and that free enterprise is the best path to prosperity for all Minnesotans. We support reducing taxes, spending and regulation to create business opportunities for our hard-working families and businesses. Therefore, we support:

You take your piece of paper or Resolution for and you write in your resolution "Support Hardship waivers for statewide smoking ban. " Or suppose you want a platform resolution to stress that government should not be telling citizens what lightbulbs or cars that they can or can not use because of their impact on global warming. Well you could certainly offer a clarification re-write of Section 7 O...

O. Adoption of an energy policy that encourages Research and Development of alternative forms of energy by private initiative.

or you write your own.....

If you go to caucus with the idea of writing a platform resolution, you need to make sure that your contact information is on the resolution (so if the BPOU Resolutions committee has questions about your resolution they can ask you) and you will want to make sure that you are elected to be a delegate to the County/BPOU convention. That way you will be able to advocate for your platform resolution on that level. You will probably want to make sure that you are a delegate to the Congressional District convention as well...for the same reason. If your resolution makes it out of the Congressional District Convention it goes on to State and if it passes at State....it's officially part of the MNGOP platform!

Caucus goers have the power and the opportunity to change the direction of the party. What issue concerns YOU the most? Me.....I think I feel a global warming platform resolution in the works.