Welcome to the Purple Party Wiki, a Web site and community where anyone can contribute and edit information. All of the content on this site were added by activitists like you. Want to contribute your hopes and ideas for the Purple Party? It's easy -- learn how by watching this quick tutorial.

What's the Purple Party?
After the 2004 presidential election, several analysts pointed out the fact that there were not any "red" (Republican) or "blue" (Democrat) states. In reality, most of the country was actually different hues of "purple".

So the concept of a purple party came to fruition, and most recently was talked about in New York magazine article. The idea is to develop a new political base that could unite those of us dissatisfied with the established political parties.

But let's be realistic -- third party candidates haven't faired well in politics in the US, for a number of structural reasons. But Ross Perot's participation in the 1992 presidential elections resulted in his garnering 19% of the vote, allowing Bill Clinton to win the election with only 43% of the popular vote.

"Purple Party" also has currency as a generic name for a new political party of an unspecified nature; and has an implied but ambiguous relationship with the Green Party through virtue of both parties being named after a color.

The name Purple Party also connotes idealism and being out of the ordinary. That appears to be the case at www.PurpleParty.com -- which includes a forum with a similar platform building objective as this wiki.

Why a wiki?
Traditional politics has always started with a candidate who stood for on a specific platform. If voters agreed with the platform, they voted for that candidate.

But what if we turned the process on its head? We as voters would create the platforms that we believed in and then have candidates support us. This will probaby happen at the local level first.

For example, a group of 200 dissatisfied parents can advocate for better after-school enrichment programs. A school board candidate who supported that platform would have a much better chance of winning those 200 votes -- and potentially that coveted seat on the board.

At it's core, this is technology giving grassroots politics at voice.

The goals of this site are to:

1. Draw attention to issues ignored by the majority parties.
2. Serve as a focal point for voters eager to build a community around these issues.
3. Result in political change.