Talk:American Majority

To do. Please write a brief definition or description of this article at American Majority/Definition.

Metadata here

Did some CZ formatting, general comments

I did a bit of formatting and may do some additional editing just to get things closer to CZ format.

There is, I believe, abundant reason to have articles on the techniques of activism and constitutional political organizing, which often cut across ideologies. I am a bit concerned that this article, in its present form, reads more like an advertisement for American Majority, and less of a simple statement of what it is. It may be useful to move some of the how-to-organize content to less ideological articles. Howard C. Berkowitz 16:52, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Possible advertising content moved here for discussion

CZ is not intended to be a place for advertising or news releases. It can be perfectly appropriate to have an external link to a page with such material. The material below seems,to me, to violate rules on advertising:

==Upcoming Events==

• Louisiana Activist Training, February 17, 2009.
• Kansas Candidate and Activist Trainings, February 9, 14, 21, 25, 28, 2009.
• Oklahoma Candidate Training, February 28, 2009.
• Minnesota Candidate and Activist Trainings February 10, 21, 2009.
• And a special first ever Training Event in Fond Du Lac, WI on February 21, 2009.

For more information about an event, please visit our website and contact the state offices.

Howard C. Berkowitz 16:58, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I've moved the news section below here as well because it reads like a brochure. I think a 'History' type section would do well in this article, highlighting the origins of the organization and it's growth, but a news ticker does not seem encylopedic to me, especially with links to local blogger opinions and a link for people to sign up for an email newsletter. --Todd Coles 17:50, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

==News==

• In its first year of existance, American Majority has conducted several dozen training events for hundreds of activists and candidates. Those attending plan to run for a variety of public offices.
• American Majority has written and printed manuals on the topics of "How to Run for City Council" and "How to Run for School Board", which are distributed at training events.
• American Majority Minnesota held the first training event of the year on January 10th, training activists in Austin, MN for community work.
• American Majority Kansas held the year's first Candidate Training on January 24th, with nearly 40 people attending. The training attracted the attention of a local blogger, who wrote about the event and the work American Majority is doing in Kansas.
• Build the Majority is an email campaign designed to increase awareness of American Majority and allow people to sign up for email newsletters and frequent updates. Visit Build the Majority.

hello from a Constable, and our Self-Promotion policy

Hi, I'm the Constable who approved your application a little while ago. I'm glad to see that you've gotten started so quickly! However, I think that before you go much further with this article you should take a look at our page on "Self-promotion" at:

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Policy_on_Self-Promotion

Please note carefully what the first paragraph says:

• You may not, even if you are a topic informant, start an article about yourself, or any company, organization, website, or other entity, especially marketable entity, with which you are closely associated. Such articles may be deleted summarily, regardless of their quality. In the future, our Topic Informant Workgroup may start a project in which companies may submit new articles about themselves. We have not yet started such a project.
  • Exceptions: students and teachers may start articles about their universities and schools

The Website for American Majority clearly identifies you as a staff member. That you are, would appear to violate the above policy that organization members cannot write about their companies. That said, there *are* some gray areas here that have not yet been completely resolved. I do have to say, however, that you should be aware that other members of Citizendium may take a very narrow view of the acceptability of your writing about this organization.

In the meantime, I suggest that you study our policies carefully and then review and possibly edit your article in light of these policies.

Thanks! Hayford Peirce 17:27, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Notability or lack thereof

The New York Times has not a single mention of it, EXCEPT for four items 6 years ago about the founding of Poseda's group, which, at the time, had exactly the same name as the one today -- it's confusing: some people called it American Majority Fund, others called it American Majority Institute. In any case, the present one is flying under the radar of the NYT. Hayford Peirce 19:55, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

I am deleting the article about the president, Ned Ryun

The article about the president, Ned Ryun, that was created today, was 99% the same, word for word, as the biography about him in the company's Staff page. It is therefore almost certainly a copyright violation, and it is clearly a blatant case of self-promotion, in that another staff member wrote this article about her employer.

The company bio may be found at: [1]

Just for the record, here is the complete text of the original article here at CZ about Ned Ryun that I have now deleted:

Ned Ryun is the president of American Majority, a conservative organization that identifies and trains political candidates interested in limited government, as well as activists who will become involved in local government, school district governance, or state legislatures.

Ryun, the son of former U.S. Congressman Jim Ryun, a Republican from Kansas, was a former presidential writer for George W. Bush and the co-founder and former director of the Generation Joshua program. Ryun currently sits on the board of the Madison Project.

Ryun is married to Becca Ryun, has two sons named Nathaniel and James, a daughter named Charlotte, and lives in Northern Virginia.

==Authored books== Ned Ryun has co-authored two books with his father and twin brother, Drew Ryun. Heroes Among Us was released in 2002 and The Courage to Run was released in 2006.

Reason for reverting "free-market" to "ideology"

First, there's nothing derogatory about the term "ideology". Jeremy Bentham, Karl Marx, Thomas Jefferson, and Vladimir Lenin all were ideological theorists. While the full ideology of AM is not clear, it certainly does seem to fit some libertarian models, and it would be well to show how it fits into libertarian theory. Fusionist? Anarcho-libertarian? Objectivist? Galambosian? Something completely different? Views on U.S. Libertarian Party?

Second, your description of the goals of the organization include minimizing government, which is not inherently relevant to markets.

Third, "free-market" is an ill-defined term, which has unfortunately taken on emotional baggage. Mercantilism or capitalism? Is it completely unregulated laissez-faire? Is there antitrust? Is the Tragedy of the Commons recognized? Do corporations have the rights of humans? Many classic free market description assume "perfect information" in the game-theoretic sense, so any misrepresentation of financial information destroys the model — many free-market theorists consider enforcement of financial misrepresentation and fraud one of the legitimate functions of government.

Howard C. Berkowitz 15:08, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your input. I went back to put more time into the article than I had yesterday, and appreciate you clarifying the policies for me. With regards to the free market/ideology issue, I just wanted to clarify that AM is focused on economic/marketplace issues, and not the broader social issues. Thanks again, I will get the hang of it soon!

Jaoni Wood

To quote the mission statement,

...conservative leadership committed to helping America remain a strong and free nation through limited government, individual freedom and the free market system.

The underscored points are not limited to economic/marketplace issues. American conservatism is a group of ideologies, and there's nothing wrong with that term. "Limited government", even in the view of some conservative ideologists, requires certain government functions in protection from economic fraud. Howard C. Berkowitz 16:57, 10 February 2009 (UTC)