How do political parties pick their positions?

r/

Like what does being pro gun have to do with lower taxes and being pro life?

What does wanting more gun control have to do with raising taxes and being pro choice?

Why is it that if a person believes one thing they automatically believe another?

Comments

  1. AutoModerator Avatar

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    Like what does being pro gun have to do with lower taxes and being pro life?

    What does wanting more gun control have to do with raising taxes and being pro choice?

    Why is it that if a person believes one thing they automatically believe another?

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  2. antizeus Avatar

    By amalgamating the positions of their members.

  3. CaseyJones7 Avatar

    Generally speaking, any policy is going to be relatively independent of another policy. This has nuance of course, like something being highly associated with taxes and not the actual policy itself. But anyways, there’s 3 main ways a party "picks" a position

    Opposition to another party (more common today, if they believe this, then I don’t) – Immigration seems to fall into this camp, but it may be changing.

    The large majority of the party believes in something – If large majority of the party believes in being pro-choice, then the party is going to be pro choice. This is more of a ground-up approach where it’s members collectively pick the platform, rather than the party establishment itself.

    A strong leader picks the platform – VERY common and obvious with trump, but it happens with every single presidential candidate. This is generally "if President X believes this, and I am of party X, then I shall believe in it too." Medicare for all is probably the most obvious left-wing example today, it’s so associated with Sanders that, if you believe in sanders, you’re almost guaranteed to believe in M4A. This can sometimes be quite subtle, but still remains extremely obvious under Trump. Personality cults are built upon this principle.

  4. wonkalicious808 Avatar

    Some people have meetings and write stuff down. Then they and other people vote.

  5. TakingLslikepills Avatar

    I think a more interesting sub question is how do political parties prioritize what they focus on and achieve.

  6. phoenixairs Avatar

    >Why is it that if a person believes one thing they automatically believe another?

    They don’t have to, and we see different people reconcile this in different ways.

    For example, I have observed:

    • The progressives get pissed at the Democratic party for not aligning with everything they believe, and are disappointed the party isn’t literally uniform up-and-down. Like omg Manchin sux and we might as well gift the seat to the Republicans amirite?
    • The conservatives are flexible with their positions to better fit in. Trump wins the nomination and suddenly the party platform is literally just whatever Trump’s circle wants, minus a few dissenters who are now RINOs and outcasts.
  7. normalice0 Avatar

    republicans choose the position of giving the rich more money and change all other facade positions to accommodate any subset of the population that is stupid enough that there is potential to trick them into voting for giving the rich more money.

    Democrats hold a convention in which they have delegates from every single precinct in the US to construct a party platform.