Tuesday, October 23, 2007

In Response to Tim Cox

Hello Tim and other interested readers,
To begin, I would like to say "thank you" to Tim for his willingness to embrace my questions and suggestions in regard to his web-based "party". I would like to take this time to clarify some things from my prior posting as well as address some issues that have been brought to my attention since then.
First, I would like to make it clear that my motive in enlightening my readers to Tim Cox's standard of living was not to criticize his wealth or portray his assets in ill regard, but rather to create a sense of transparency to potential GOOOH participants or skeptics. It's important to note that my blog entry about Tim Cox's efforts were for a college Government assignment - requiring a critical analysis about a local or state issue; that is exactly what I did. My goal was to analyze the newly created, political "party" as well as investigate its purpose and founder, while including my personal perspective. I found, after reading the GOOOH web page, that there were many financial aspects about Tim Cox and the "party" that were not conveyed to the site's readers. Therefore, leading me to establish a sense of understanding to those who wondered why a person would leave a high-paying job to pursue a virtually impractical pursuit (as viewed by many). I do not negate the fact that Mr. Cox may have rightfully earned every asset of his - that does not serve an interest to me. What does raise an interest is why a high paying employee would leave a good job in order to "risk" everything - his own money and assets, when he is about to have two children in college (as commented by Tim), and does not have the certainty (certainty, not hope) that his political plan will be successful. I have many questions and suggestions that I will offer up to Tim Cox and his colleagues.
1. If there are not enough people to get the "party" process up and running, what will happen to the members' donated money? Will it be returned? If I am going to give you $100, which is a significant amount of money, I need to know where that money is going - especially if there are no candidates in the GOOOH party.
2. Is there a track record of success or a publicized plan showing the ways in which the GOOOH party will be able to raise enough money from the people to defeat the other candidates from larger parties (i.e. Democratic Reps and Republican Reps)? This is the type of transparency needed in order for people to get involved. I noticed on the site that it inferred that those who are fed up with the current state of our nation are the votes that the GOOOH leaders are counting on in order to financially, and otherwise, support their candidates and campaigns. I, personally, do not think that statistics proving that there is a large majority of voters frustrated with current conditions leads to any promise that they will support the GOOOH party out of hope of a solution. If anything, those that are already upset will look at this party and become skeptical until they see something showing PROOF that things will change.
3. How can the GOOOH leaders enforce a person to act (when elected to term) in accordance to his questionaire (showing the candidate's stances of specific issues)? How can a candidate fully foresee the issues that might arise or the bills that may be presented during term and decide on his/her stance before it actually happens?
4. I think that this plan needs to be workable to the masses - when you limit who can participate in politics, for instance the wealthy and lawyers, you could potentially be illuminating those who could be of the most help. Just as Tim Cox, himself, said that he is able to do what he is doing now because of the money he has made, wouldn't it only be fair to give other wealthy people the opportunity to at least run and expose their stances on things? Who is anyone to determine who would be a good candidate without the vote of the public?
5. Also - what is GOOOH's stand on term limits of representatives? And, where does the party stand in terms of pensions for the representatives?

To comment on the decreasing quality of our Government and Nation, I must say that I ,too, am a parent and share similar concerns in regard to my children's future. I see the problems in our educational system and I can understand the frustration fueling the action. However, I do not believe that by overthrowing the current 435 congressmen will necessarily change our nation. Aren't we all human? We all make mistakes and every human has the tendency to lie or make mistakes, even mistakes that could effect the entire country. Just because new, innovative representatives might enter the House of Representatives, does not guarantee a change for the better.
On a final note, I do believe that the goal of Tim Cox is good at its core, but question the motive and lack of transparency of the party and its leaders. I know that the GOOOH party is in its early stages, but I see the need for it to quickly "get it together" if it desires the support of the "unhappy" citizens.

4 comments:

Eric Wooten said...

Desiree, You're right – we need to get our financial ducks in a row quickly and we are driving to do just that. Financial accountability and credibility is of utmost importance to us. We have a team of people hammering out the details and we will finish the process in the very near future. We intend to structure ourselves the same way that the Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, etc are organized. It's difficult to uncover how they're organized, so it's taking more time than we anticipated to navigate the legal maze involved. To answer your question "If I am going to give you $100, which is a significant amount of money, I need to know where that money is going - especially if there are no candidates in the GOOOH party.": the GOOOH campaign pool will be funded by people who participate in the candidate selection sessions – although people who do not intend to participate in these sessions are welcome to contribute. In essence, a person is seeding their own campaign fund when they contribute the $100 donation. However, understand that if their district chooses someone else during the candidate selection process as the best representative for that district, their donation will go to support the selected candidate’s campaign. I believe the answers to your other questions are covered in our GOOOH FAQs. Because we take feedback like this very seriously, we will be creating a post in the GOOOH forum to solicit feedback and give us ideas as to the best way to establish this financial credibility. Since we are creating this forum post based on your input, I hope you join the forum and help us craft the solution. GOOOH is intended to be a ‘we the people’ effort, and we are depending upon patriots like you to define how the GOOOH process should work. Thanks for the great feedback!

David Osborne (GOOOH FLORIDA) said...

Eric that was masterful, and well stated. I am the Florida Leader for GOOOH and i share Tim Cox's and our founding father's vision of a congress "of the people, for the people, by the people." Desiree's question about Tim's motivation for leaving a lucrative position, to pursue this "pipe dream" that is GOOOH. Is self evident, the answer is so obvious, except for one of the things, this country has lost! It's innocence and belief and trust in our Fellow Americans. That which GOOOH is capable of restoring is also going to be our worst enemy. The cynicism, mistrust, and skepticism that fuels Desiree's analisys, also fuels this nation. That a man could love this country more than money is a concept very very very few can grasp. I grasp it, I get it Tim, thank you so much. I have clung to my childhood as hard as i can, in a Nation gone mad, with hatred, and evil. I weep at the difference between my childhood in the 50's and 60's and my childrens childhood in the 70's, 80's, and
90's. Where I could ride the streets on my bicycle for ten's of miles away from home, for hours upon hours and never worry about returning home safley. Whereas my children had to be within eye or earshot of my voice 24-7, for fear of some monster stealing them away from me. If you were not there you cannot know how much we have lost. Can GOOOH repair the Damage Done Desiree?? I cant see the future, but I do know the current legislators, do not care about what America has lost in my lifetime, and are in fact partially responsible, for the grave injury done to her, due to inaction!!

David Osborne (GOOOH FLORIDA) said...

I am the NEW Florida Director for GOOOH.

I found your post searching for GOOOH Florida.

David Osborne
http://www.DavidOsborne.net

David Osborne (GOOOH FLORIDA) said...

I am David not Vince. I corrected my BLOG profile