The Democratic Party Needs to Change their Candidacy Rules

With the mess from last year's election still affecting our daily lives, it is time to look at how Our Party could have prevented this.

I have some suggestions I would like to see the DNC take into consideration (at least some of them, if not all):

1. Do not allow candidates to run for office unless they have been members of the party prior to the last Presidential Election.
      This will prevent people jumping from party to party just to use a party for exposure, and keeps the party from doling out time, money and info to someone who is only after party database info and financial

backing. (the only exception would be in cases where candidate only reached age to vote after the previous Presidential election or by majority vote of a DNC membership committee)

2. Candidates for Senate, House & President must pass FBI background checks before announcing their candidacy as a party member.           This would obviously protect the party from those who might end up unable to finish their term due to legal issues, or those who cannot be trusted to approve security clearances.

3. Candidates must submit a minimum of 5 years of tax returns with the party (authorizing release) before they can file their candidacy under that party.  

       Much of the trouble we are dealing with today would have been prevented if candidates who refused to release their taxes had never been able to run in the first place. Or, if they'd had to run on lesser known party tickets.

4. Candidates must show evidence of their backing of the party platform's main ideals.

            If the candidate has no political background, they must pledge to follow party platform. (Putting Country before Party is an acceptable exception) What good is a party platform if those who represent the party don't support it?? ( One example is the recent decision about Pro-Life members. These people should need to assure the Party that they will either vote with the Party, or abstain in such issues) In some states, it is understandable that certain ideals automatically put a candidate at a disadvantage. Let them focus on our other ideals.

5. Party candidates with investments and/or businesses must provide a plan for divestiture of their assets, blind trust (legal definition), or other manners in which conflicts will be avoided.  This plan must be in a legally binding contract, held by the Party.

          For obvious reasons, it is important that leaders of our government not profit from any decisions they make, nor be subject to compromise because of financial ties.

6. Candidates during the Primary will pledge to avoid attacking members of their own party during the primary season. Any candidate that becomes vile toward their own party candidates will lose all funding from the party, or be removed by the party.
          Primaries have become "oppo research" for the rival parties by feeding negative  (and often, unfair, or untrue) information to voters. Primaries are not a time to "cut down" members of our own party. It is a disservice to the Party to have its members destroying each other publicly.

7.  Primary debates are to stick with POLICY - not personality, not attack ads.
         This is the place to find the differences between the candidates and learn who has done their homework. Sadly, the debates became "gotcha" pieces, and failed to distinguish the candidates on actual understanding of what their party stands for. The Primary is a way for the Party to get its ideology out to the public. It is a time to differentiate between the candidates, so the voters pick the best candidate for the job. They should be considered job interviews, not mud wrestling matches.

7. The Party should provide a "standard of ethical behavior" that must be followed by candidates (and their spouses, significant others, and campaign team members)
         The best way to protect our party, and provide the best candidates is to hold our candidates to a higher standard, and fire anyone that might create an embarrassing "scandal". (This would not include GOP witch hunts attacking our candidates)

8. Instead of catering to Extremists in our party, we must work to register those who agree with our party, but don't vote.
        Extremists are called so because they won't compromise on anything. They are "my way or the highway" bullies. No party should cater to such groups because Democracy is about compromise.

9. No Party money will be spent on non-party members. Let their party pay for their exposure. We cannot support those who disparage our party publicly.

10. Any high profile Party member that disparages the Party publicly for their own person agenda will not be endorsed by the Party in future elections. Minor disagreements or other "viewpoints" are not the same as berating the Party.
        We don't need members of our own Party who denigrate the Party or its members for personal gain.

11. The Party must stop elevating those who bring us down, and start applauding the real heroes of the party - WOC, POC, Women, Minorities.

12. Until Citizen's United is overturned, it must be the Party's job to educate about this, & explain to the public the dangers of it. In the meantime, we must also educate them as to how donations are reported.
        Voters don't know that if 20,000 nurses donate $100 each, it will show up as $2,000,000 from the healthcare industry. We must combat the idea that every Democrat is "bought" because they took money for their campaign.

13. The Democratic Party must become the Positive Party.
    The GOP is painting us as the "Against" Party. We must campaign with positive phraseology. If there is one thing to learn from the GOP it is "talking points"  How to present the plan, argument, or objection with a positive viewpoint.
ex. We

are not against the ACHA, we are FOR fixing the ACA; We are not against tax cuts for the rich, we are FOR the Average American seeing a bigger paycheck.
       We seriously need a "spin machine" that keeps us focused on speaking in the positive. The GOP is the party of hate and fear. We MUST be the Party of Hope & Change.

14. If states insist on caucuses, we must find a way to make them more accessible to all voters. Caucuses tend to favor the young & unemployed. People who work, are handicapped, sick, or elderly cannot spend an entire day to determine a candidate for their party. And the negative, bullying that happened this past election was devastating to the Party and to voters who were trying to do their duty as a citizen.

If anyone has any other suggestions, let's share them with the DNC and demand they listen to "We the People".  We MUST be the Party "of the People" or the "People" have no one.