It is my opinion that that fundamental core value must be that to be lasting and real and viable in the long term political power must be acquired by setting forth guiding principles that a party intends to follow in all of it's actions.

And that a party must set up an accountability committee answerable to law to hold it's own feet to the fire by continual measurement during election campaigns so that parties do not throw their principles out the window simply to acquire power.

It may also be a good idea to legislate that parties must adhere to that fundamental value.

These are pretty idealistic ideas, I'll admit. But so what? America was founded on ideals.

Urge your Senator to support legislation for paper trails and random audits for ALL electronic ballots.

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/11/13/14556/731

Elevator Speech:
Social and Economic Justice
International Cooperation and Leadership
Civic Responsibility

I actually read some interesting links.
http://dnc.org/a/party/history.html

Why conservatives can't govern.

The United States, as the political scientist Louis Hartz argued in the 1950s, was born liberal. We fought for our independence against Great Britain and the conservatism that flourished there. In Europe, a conservative was someone who defended the traditions of the monarchy, justified the privileges of the nobility, and welcomed the intervention of a state-affiliated clergy in politics. But all those things would be tossed out by the revolutionaries who led the war for independence and then wrote the Constitution. We chose to have an elected president, not an anointed monarch. Our Constitution prohibited the granting of titles of nobility. We separated church and state.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0607.wolfe.html

that every member of our society has responsibilities, as well as rights. that any law should pass "the greatest good for the country" test, before being voted on. that you can't legislate morality, and that's not government's job. that the government's job is to protect the citizens, not abuse them

I think also they should explicitly recognize that there is no such thing as an independent human being, that we are all dependent on each other, as the Worldwide Climate Catastrophe makes clear, and we must work together just to survive, even more so to flourish; and we should strive to flourish, not just a few individuals, but all of us.

  That we recognize that government solutions to problems (be it health care, safe and affordable housing housing, education, basic financial security...) cannot be prefected but that we believe that imperfect solutions are far better than ignoring or denying real needs.

  That it is fundamentally unfair for the advantaged to preach a mantra of "personal responsibility" as an excuse for neglecting needs when we know that many are denied the tools necessary  to succeed.