Town Meeting Members who join the Brookline Domestic Caucus commit themselves to voting no on any Town Meeting resolution related primarily to U.S. foreign policy.
Town Meeting’s primary responsibility is to establish a budget, keep it balanced, and enact bylaws that ensure the smooth functioning of the town. No one voted for us for our foreign policy expertise.
Non-binding resolutions are just that: they bind nobody to any action. You will find little evidence that Town Meeting’s non-binding resolutions achieve any meaningful goal.
Brookline is home to great intellectual diversity, which, by its nature, cannot be reflected in one-dimensional, majority-rule resolutions.
The strictures of Town Meeting’s process yield a poor mechanism to explore complex ideas, evolve complex solutions, and change minds about controversial subjects.
At times, Brookline’s passage of non-binding resolutions leads to ridicule in the media, from those who resent Town Meeting presuming to know better than its own citizens or other towns.
With Town Meeting growing longer and longer each year, participants have been calling for new ways to make the warrant shorter and meetings more efficient.
We have many political advocacy organizations active within and around Brookline who are effective in communicating with our representatives in Washington.
<aside> <img src="/icons/arrow-right-basic_pink.svg" alt="/icons/arrow-right-basic_pink.svg" width="40px" /> [Town Meeting Members: Add your name](mailto:[email protected]?subject=Add%20me%20to%20the%20Domestic%20Caucus)
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<aside> <img src="/icons/more_gray.svg" alt="/icons/more_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Membership in formation
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If a large number of TMMs abstained, the remaining TMMs could pass a motion with even fewer yes votes required. To deter these resolutions and ensure they do not pass, the caucus votes no.