A common criticism being thrown around of the Coffee Party is that it is just a left-leaning, Democratic partisan group. The argument is that anyone who isn't left-leaning or a partisan Democrat isn't really welcome in the Coffee Party.
The argument is based on the premise that the Coffee Party agenda will be determined by the composition of the membership. If the membership is comprised primarily of liberals and partisan Democrats then the agenda will be liberal and partisan Democrat. Hence, it doesn't matter if Republicans, conservatives, moderates, independents and nonpartisan people decide to join. Despite all this talk of inclusiveness and listening to all sides of an issue in rational, civil debate, at the end of the day, the partisan Democratic or liberal agenda will be the agenda of the Coffee Party.
How do I, as an independent, respond to that?
1) I am an independent and have been offered this excellent platform as a Coffee Party USA blogger. I am not being asked by the Coffee Party to water down or in any way compromise my beliefs. In fact, I was very open with the Coffee Party leadership from the very beginning that I am an independent. I intend to use this as a platform to challenge the Coffee Party to live up to its ideals of inclusiveness of differing viewpoints. I also intend to use it as a platform to persuade my fellow independents to join and participate in the movement. The more of us there are in the movement, engaging and challenging the movement, the better the chances of independent viewpoints being represented in the Coffee Party.
2) The Coffee Party is committed to small "d" democratic processes and building consensus among its members. Just because we may disagree on certain political or philosophical issues doesn't mean we cannot arrive at a consensus in decision-making as fellow Americans. Consensus, agreement and compromise happens all the time in life between people who hold differing viewpoints and who may have competing interests. Muslims, Christians and Jews; Religious and secular people; labor and management, etc. Politically there are examples of transpartisan experiments where people with differing viewpoints come together and try to seek common ground with one another. An example is the Transpartisan Alliance. The key is having a process in place to make cooperation possible. So my viewpoint is that just because we are starting from differing ideologies, belief systems and political views, compromise and consensus is not impossible. At the end of the day, we are all Americans and human beings interested in doing what is right for the country.
3) I joined the Coffee Party with eyes wide open that many in the membership are progressives and Democrats. I am taking a leap of faith that if they are members of the Coffee Party, that the ideals of inclusiveness of differing viewpoints, intellectual diversity and rational, calm, substantive conversations about politics are as important to them as they are to me. Hence, I am relying on people to be open-minded to the idea that no ideology or political party has the monopoly on truth and good ideas and that they would be open to accepting valid points coming from political perspectives other than theirs. And that this spirit will be reflected in the process of developing and agreeing on a Coffee Party platform.
Any other questions you'd like to ask the Indy Coffee Party Dude about how an independent can fit into this movement? Feel free to engage me in the Coffee Party blog.
