The Republican National Committee Platform Hearings on C-SPAN (videos)

I caught some of the RNC Platform Hearings on C-SPAN the week before their convention. It’s pretty fascinating, if you’re into politics, government, and/or public service. Their discussions were also also surprisingly candid and overt — they put their many of overall goals and values out there regardless of how acceptable they’d be for the average American, be that a moderate voter or a member of the cultural mainstream (for example ultimate dissolution of the US Department of Education was a policy idea that gained general approval). But the committee tended to shape the final issues and stances they advance in their official platform so that the agenda would seem more amenable, with its underlying values and motivations hidden. Except the meetings were on film, and you can watch these clips to see how the RNC arrived at their platform.

I have arranged the following links in chronological order. The actual titles of the clips on the C-SPAN pages don’t always reflect the same part number that the links below indicate, but this is the correct order of the proceedings so I formatted the list so it’d be easiest to navigate.

• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Part 1 08/26/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings Part 2 08/26/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings Part 3 08/26/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings Part 4 08/26/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings Part 5 08/26/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
  
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Day 2, Part 1 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Rep. Boehner Appearance at Republican Platform Hearing 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Day 2, Part 2 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Day 2, Part 3 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Day 2, Part 4 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Day 2, Part 5 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Day 2, Part 6 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
• Republican National Committee Platform Hearings, Day 2, Part 7 08/27/2008 Minneapolis, Minnesota
  
  
  
• Republican Party Platform Vote 09/01/2008 Washington, District of Columbia
  

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