Science

In the previous Poor Richard’s blog post we discussed the Mission and Vision of the Benjamin Franklin Party. Today let’s turn our attention to the Franklin Party’s Values.

Before we begin, though, it will be helpful to briefly review the relationship between Mission, Vision, and Values. The easiest way to think of these interrelated ideas is in the form of a pyramid, with Values at the base, Vision in the middle, and Mission at the top. As the model suggests, Values support Vision, and Vision gives rise to the Mission.

Over time there may be different Missions to realize a Vision, but the Vision and Values are always constant. We looked at the connection between the Franklin Party’s Vision and Mission in the previous blog post, so now let’s look at the relationship between the party’s Values and its Vision.

The Benjamin Franklin Party’s three core Values are Science, Justice, and Foresight. Today we’ll focus on science and keep justice and foresight for upcoming posts.

At first it might seem odd for all of science, and not just political science, to be a core value of a political party. But if Values support Vision, then this makes perfect sense.

As a reminder, the Benjamin Franklin Party’s Vision is:

“We see a United States where evidence-based governance produces and protects the highest standard of living for all Americans.”

A key phrase in this statement is “evidence-based.” It is little wonder then that the Franklin Party values the best system ever devised for arriving at reliable evidence: Science.

The ability of science to capture high-quality evidence would be reason enough for the Franklin Party to value it, but there are even more reasons to love science. For example, the scientific method requires sharing and openness so that results can be independently verified. At the very least, this sharing provides transparency, but it can also engender cooperation and collaboration — all valuable qualities in a well-functioning government.

It’s worth noting, however, that science is not a static body of knowledge. It is constantly evolving, refining, and improving itself. This is a strength, however, and not a weakness of science. And this growth should not only be expected but welcome.

If you think of science as the “brain” of the Benjamin Franklin Party, then in our next post we’ll discuss its “heart”: Justice.

Yours in republic keeping,
James Carroll
BFPNC Chair