Space Politics
Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway…
August 10, 2008 at 2:08 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
The Democratic party has completed work on its party platform for 2008, which will be adopted at the convention in Denver later this month. The text of the platform hasn’t been released yet (at least officially on the party’s web site) but a near-final draft was published by The Atlantic.com late Thursday. And, at least this draft does mention space in passing, as part of a single sentence on page 16 (page 19 of the PDF document linked to in the post):
We will double federal funding for basic research, invest in a strong and inspirational vision for space exploration and make the Research and Development Tax Credit permanent.
That doesn’t say much at all, other than the party felt it was worth it to include a passing mention of space in the platform: the 2004 version makes no mention of space policy at all.
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While it doesn’t say much, it says as much as is said about investment in alternative energy sources and medical research, which are big issues. We’re just not going to get much detail in a party platform. Getting equal billing with alternative energy and medical research is a victory.
Unfortunately, all parties understand that the way to get elected is to promise everyone whatever they wanted. And then, if elected, to try to sort out what could actually be delivered.
It does not reflect well on the American electorate that we fall for this time after time.
[...] noted here last month, the Democratic Party platform includes a passing reference to space in its 2008 edition, while its 2004 edition made no mention of the subject. The 2008 Republican [...]
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