One of the main criticisms of the party is that it lacks a comprehensive agenda or platform. Party leaders respond that there is an agenda, that of open and transparent government and reliance on voter funding, not special interest money.

The problem with having a skeleton agenda is that the members will start putting meat on those bones themselves.

Now the party is entering an organizational phase. Meetups, local chapters forming, interaction among members on the party’s facebook page. It will be interesting to see if the tea party independents, the libertarians, and the progressives, all of whom accept the limited agenda of the party, can even hold a meeting together for more than about 10 minutes. I don’t think they can.

Would it be better for the party to set out a more broad middle of the road moderate agenda that also  includes the basic agenda that the party was founded on? While the party may shrink by 20,000 members were it to do so, would it become a more viable party that would, in the end, attract more members?

The current leadership of the party may believe that more members is preferable to a more comprehensive platform. I think they are wrong. A political party can’t be a wheelbarrow full of cats.

~snicket~