Below is a tale, its ending unwritten, of a Gate Crasher’s tentative but persistent first steps toward real political power.
It’s motivated by the belief that it is time to stop typing about how bad the Dems are and to do something about it — to put my life where my sig line is and be the Democrat I want to see.
In the past months I have moved from political voyeur, reading blogs and being horrified by our nation’s decline, to (small) money donor, and now to foot soldier in the battle.
But there’s the hitch. The party is so dysfunctional that I’m having trouble even enlisting! Read more to hear what getting boots on the ground really takes and why my difficulty may be as inspiring as it is frustrating.
Discovering how bad it really is: the bad news.
Part of my move to real involvement started out of curiosity. I had read once that the Republicans beat us in 2000 and 2004 partly because they had a much better machine, and used this new-fangled stuff like computers, e-mail, and the like.
In September, I ran an experiment. Went to the county Dem and GOP websites.
I found a form at the GOP site where I could check off boxes for what my skills were, how I would be willing to help, and enter other data. Within a day I was getting updates by e-mail on action items and meetings, calls for GOP volunteers. (They eventually dropped me. Must have looked up my party registration).
At the Dem site I had to dig a bit more and found an e-mail address. I replied to it. I heard nothing. Weeks and several more e-mails later I was on the Dem’s e-mail list. I never heard from a person, but at least I got the occasional update.
Frustration Grows
In January, I resolved to get more heavily involved and had time to do so. So I went through the web info again and sent the following e-mail:
I am replying to the request on the website to volunteer for precinct work.
Here is what the website says:
If you are not a member of your precinct organization and would like to be active, please contact us with your precinct’s name (the school, church, or fire station where you vote), your name, and a contact number or email address. We’ll be pleased to have your precinct chair get in touch with youHere is the requested info:
Precinct: Bethabara (I live at XXXXXXXXXXXX)
Name: XXXXXXXXXX
e-mail: XXXXXXXXXI am excited about the party and Dean’s efforts to build from the ground up. I have made a small donation to the DNC. I am looking over the various committees to see where I might be of most use, too. If someone knows which committees need the most help, let me know.
I never received a reply to that e-mail. Never. Nothing.
Houston, we have a problem!
I gave it a couple of weeks and was busy. But I persisted. I made my way to the local party HQ. A foot soldier should show up at the enlistment office, right?
My first trip, the office was closed. There had been mixed messages about new hours in an automated e-mail (I was still getting those). Oh well.
Second trip was a great success. I spoke to the one very welcoming woman there who confirmed that the party was in rough shape but she was excited about the training the DNC would do the next weekend for precinct captains and party leaders. She hoped they would attend (did not sound too confident about turnout). I told her I saw the info about that on the website but had to be out of town that weekend.
The woman looked up the name and contact information for my precinct captain and the head of the volunteers committee. I gave her my information and listed my skills (writing, research, debate).
Another week or so went by and I got a call from the 1st Vice Chair. Unfortunately we played phone tag until recently as I was out of town then she was on jury duty.
Meantime, I e-mailed the volunteer chair and the precinct captain:
My name is XXXXXX. I recently visited Dem headquarters in an effort to volunteer to become as active as possible in the local party.
Previous attempts to volunteer by sending e-mail to the suggested addresses on the county Dems website failed to elicit a response.
The woman working at HQ that day, XXXXXXX (forgive me if I am way off on the name) was very welcoming and gave me your e-mail addresses as points of contact.I have been out of town (I travel many weekends as XXXXXXXX) so missed some of the recent precinct training and other meetings.
But I could attend the upcoming precinct meeting and would also be interested in discussing other ways my skills could be helpful.
Thank you in advance for your replies.
The volunteer chair said I would be welcome at a meeting Feb. 22. No mention of nor question about how I might be of use. He is also President of Young Democrats of XXXX and they have a website with this on the front page:
The Young Democrats have kicked off their campaign to register Democratic voters for the 2004 election.
It gets worse.
The precinct captain said, Feb. 3, that she would let me know of the meeting time. The mainpage of the county Dem website says meetings are slated for Feb. 9. Six days out, the captain doesn’t know??? Here is the info from the website:
The XXXXX County Democratic Party has set Thursday, Feb. 9, as the date for the 2006 Precinct meetings. The early February date will give precincts an opportunity to hold another meeting before Feb. 21 if they do not have a quorum at the first meeting
Precincts that simply cannot hold a meeting on Feb. 9 may set another meeting date but they must notify party headquarters at XXXXXXX before holding the meeting. Such precincts must also provide ample public notification such as a notice of the different date in a local newspaper.
At these meetings, precincts are to choose delegates to the county convention, elect interim officers where vacancies have occurred, and collect the $150 precinct dues.
Precincts are supposed to meet at their polling places, but they may meet in another location provided they give party headquarters prior notice and place a notice prominently at the voting site.
Surely I would hear from the captain soon. Guess what? Feb. 8 I sent another e-mail, to her home as she had suggested. No answer. My e-mail to her office tells the rest of the story of Feb. 9:
I tried your home email last night.
Is the Dem precinct meeting today/tonight?
If not, I can relax. If it is, where and when?
I REALLY, REALLY want to participate.
I tried other ways of finding this information, too.
I called party HQ today, no answer, no returned call. Message said open until 1pm.
I rushed down there but found the office closed and locked at 12:45.
Sorry to be a pest, but I hope you can understand how frustrating it is.
I received a reply that night, that I had not missed anything, and that she would get back to me by Saturday about place and time.
Meanwhile, I was closing in on the vice-chair contact. She had jury duty, but could be reached at home in the evening. I called and she said she was busy but would call me the next night, Friday.
So, like a dumbass, I waited by the phone Friday night. Nothing.
So I called the vice chair Saturday morning around 10. She knew me. I knew her. Her husband had a part in hiring me 21 years ago. She knew my job. She asked me can I write. Can I write? She asked me can I research. Can I research? Very strange. Anyhow, she promises she will find something for me to do to help someday. But I have not been so insulted in a long time.
Oh, and did I mentioned that she explained the office was closed Friday because they couldn’t get the lock to work? I am not making any of this up.
Meanwhile, it is Saturday, the day the precinct captain will tell me when the meeting is. Or not.
So, Sunday afternoon, 12 hours ago, I asked again, and 8 hours later got this:
I have requested the use of the Demo Headquarters on February 20th, 2006. I expect to hear from them tomorrow (Monday).
Remember this from the website?
The early February date will give precincts an opportunity to hold another meeting before Feb. 21 if they do not have a quorum at the first meeting.
I guess she is super confident we’ll have a quorum on the last day meetings are allowed under the rules. Forgive me if I don’t share that confidence, but what do I know? I’m just a blogger.
Why I’m Enthused. This is all great news!
When people were writing diaries about quitting and forming third parties if the Dems didn’t filibuster Alito I would reply with comments like this:
Jeers to the Democratic Party of the not too distant past that brought us to where we are today.
Cheers to the Democratic Part of today that will bring us to where we need to be in the not too distant future.
Jeers to instant gratification.
Cheers to the persistance of social movements that took decades to see success and those still struggling: anti-slavery, women’s suffrage, civil rights, environmentalism, feminism, sexual orientation, and others ya’ll can list.
And this:
To those who say, “If the Dems don’t filibuster or do X or Y the right way this month, I’ll not vote for them or join/start a new party or something.”:
Listen, please:
1. Today’s party is not the party of next spring or next year. Being unhappy with what happens this week is being unhappy with what happened to get to this week: yesterday’s party.
2. The party is changing. How could you not have seen kos’s posts on this subject, his posts on Dean, his book chapters?
3. Dean is the chair. Howard Dean. The guy that has cajones and that is mocked by old-schoolers for the scream. The guy that says we’re losing in Iraq. He is the CHAIR.
4. Dean has a plan: training people down to the PRECINCT level. Rebuilding and repopulating the infrastructure of the party with me and you. The offices are already staffed and paid for in your county. All you gave to do is walk in the door.
5. Today’s precinct captain becomes tomorrow’s alderman, next year’s stathouse rep, etc. The future Senators you want to have the spine for filibustering come from today’s new party members.
6. Dean is raising cash (at record levels and in spite of campaign finance law changes that disadvantaged Dems more than the GOP) at record levels. The party’s future cash source (small donor progressives) will be more and more influential because the party will literally not be able to afford to ignore us.
7. It is much easier to take over the hollow shell of the Democratic party than it is to start a new one. The phone lines are there. Just get yourself on one end of it instead of having to get a new phone line, too.
Item 7 is why I’m psyched up. In the weeks since I wrote that comment I have found that it is more true than I ever knew.
I know how to get things done and I will succeed. I know how to have a functioning door lock, a functioning website, respond to e-mails, generate e-mail lists, return phone calls, and get people working.
I may have had some trouble with the enlistment office, but I can see a quick rise from foot soldier to captain. And I’ll have more and more soldiers behind me.
Let’s go, folks. The gates are rusty. We may not have to crash the gates, just apply a little WD-40 and open them. Mark Stoller’s blurb for Kos’s book says this:
“Crashing the Gate is the start of a conversation. It will unleash a torrent of stories about how badly the party has been managed, who’s at fault, and why the Democratic Party keeps losing.
He has the tenses all wrong. The conversation is already happening and my story is unleashed before publication. And “[i]keeps[/i] losing”??? Kept.
With Dean’s spending plan, your help and mine, we will win and keep winning.
Just be the Democrat you want to see.
Do ya’ll have experiences to share?
I respect your willingness to work within the system. Good luck. I think I could vote for you someday.
Yeah I have a story but it is way too long for a comment. Will try to give the short version. If you don’t have money to donate first and foremost they just may not need your help. I have been down/up/down again in my district. I emailed asking why only “house parties” to meet the candidate that asked for $250+ donations, why not townhall meetings? The email reply was be patient they were coming. Three months later I emailed again saying I could not support a candidate that I could not get access to and that those people writing checks would do just that and vote. Would they knock on doors, man the phones, take people to the polls, get people to register to vote?
I received a phone call from the candidate and was blown away. We talked for over half an hour and she was going to talk to the staffer that handled blogging and set up a meeting with me. That was a month ago and have not heard back. I really like this candidate but why do we have to beg to be of service? It is mind blowing to me.
I did get a phone call from the campaign last week asking if I knew about this candidate. I told my story to caller and asked that she pass along to the staffer that I was still waiting. Guess they have enough volunteers. How very disappointing. I tried to be the change but am at this point totally frustrated.
where you could literally just show up, just walk in the door and say, “Put me to work, I’m your new volunteer?”
I’m thinking that people who never return phone calls are either a) assholes or b) overwhelmed. If you believe this is work worth doing, then let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is b) overwhelmed.
I would just show up (assuming there is a HQ somewhere, a door to knock on somewhere).
Yea, part of the diary talks about showing up (when the door is open and when it’s not).
My goal is to make showing up more productive for the next person.
Quite frankly, I don’t have the time to go on wild goose chases. I have work, family and a life to lead. The little time I have left over I was willing to give but I bee damned if I am going to beg to donate my time for a candidate that I have to chase down to meet. I no longer just go with what their flyers or websites say. I want to meet them and talk to them in person and ask the tough questions and have them look me in the eye before I pledge time and money. No one has earned that trust from me in the past eight years. Sorry!
If the local organisation won’t cooperate, then form your own group of citizens.
I agree, time and effort are too precious to waste.
So don’t waste them!
But it’s our duty as citizens to participate in the best way we can.
Most congressional districts, or counties have a Democratic Party Office. Try the Phone Book, or google your Congressional District #. Walk in, and do it! It’s not going to hurt!
Great post, Deamondeac. This the attitude we need. We can never give up. We have to become a part of the infrastructure of the party.
Demondeac, thanks for sharing your experience. It’s nice to see someone who actually is taking the bull by the horns, evaluating some practical options that can work real change and actually doing it.
Personally, I’d love to get regular diary reports from you. Talk about your successes, your frustrations, your losses, the good people, the assholes. Think about it.
There may be future “dispatches from the front lines” but I hope to be too busy building locally to have much time for them.
Over here at BT, unlike Kos, you can write short diaries and no one attacks you (usually) and they also stay up longer. So consider it. People here need encouragement and evidence of successes.
Thanks for the recs and comments.
Got the doors blown off this diary at DKos and it is at the top of the rec list which I never anticipated.
See the comments there for lots more inspiration, insight, and practical ideas.
First, you’ve got spunk. The Democratic Party hates spunk. But you’re one of my new heroes–not because I agree with most of what you’ve written (I don’t), but because you’re a fighter and Buddha knows we need more of those.
Second, the Democratic Party everywhere is “not” a hollow shell–in most places it is entrenched with folk who are all too willing to be DINOs (Democrats In Name Only), and “taking over” the party organisation at the local, state, and national level, is going to be a fierce struggle.
Such a struggle may or may not be worth waging–BUT a lot of us have looked at the effort required and decided it would be better spent building a new party and starting afresh.
It’s sort of like a marriage–you have to decide if it’s worth staying and working things out with an abusive/neglectful spouse and hoping he/she comes round, or just file for divorce and start over with a new love and pour your heart into that. Both viewpoints are valid.
Third, either taking over the Democratic Party or forming a third party run into the same damned obstacle: MONEY.
The Democratic Party largely suckles at the teat of money funneled from the corporations, and the political agenda of the Democrats shows that. The Democrats have largely abandoned “class warfare” while the Republicans are waging class warfare on behalf of the rich with a vengeance.
Simply put, you need money to win in America. That applies to the Democrats as well as to any third party that might challenge the two-party system, or seek to replace the Democrats.
You can say you will just rely entirely on small donations from individuals, but so far that strategy hasn’t raised enough money to enable us to be competitive in elections. Perhaps the Net can change all that, perhaps not–but it’s definitely a thorny problem and one that cannot be ignored. Ultimately, money must be taken out of politics, perhaps through a Constitutional amendment to prevent equating “money” with “free speech”, but that’s a dream that’s a long way from fulfillment.
So, as you can see, your scheme of “taking over the Democratic Party” has some Titanic-sized holes in it. Starting a third party (or building up the Greens) is also a formidable task. There are perils and promises in both.
Also–I think you have misread Kos’ book. You quoted this passage:
However, the answer Mr. Moulitsas and Mr. Armstrong have given to “who’s at fault” are the “special interest groups”–the “sanctimonious women’s studies groups” (feminists and pro-choice advocates), environmentalists (“hippie tree-huggers”), peace activists (“dirty hippies”), and civil rights activists…not to mention gun control advocates, etc.
Mr. Moulitsas, aka Kos and Mr. Armstrong want these people to BE QUIET.
Let’s not forget this:
And let’s not forget the feminists:
And the last gem:
I could go on, but I’m sure you take the point–“Crashing the Gates” is NOT the book to cite when discussing this topic. The intent of its authors, “Kos” and Mr. Armstrong, is NOT to empower the people but rather to exchange one set of owners for another.
Sorry if I resuscitated bad memories for anybody here, but I thought it important to set the record straight on “Crashing the Gates” being cited as a guide of some sort for our future political direction. It’s most definitely not something any of us should follow.
I know a lot of you lived through the “pie fight” or other nasty fights at DailyKos, so I apologise for dredging up bad memories–but they ARE things we need to remember when reading “Crashing the Gates”.
I have not read the book, was just using a blurb by Stoller and the metaphor.
I think I might be able to take over locally. The national business must be way down the line.
The comments on my diary at Kos have some good local takeover stories and advice.
But your points are well-taken. Maybe locals need to lead to state which then gets public campaign finance law like Arizona’s adopted. Getting the corporate money out is big.
But the average Joe voter, GOP, Independent and Dem is fed up with big bucks crony politics. Can we lead the way?
It’s not what you think it is.
Kos’ basic prescription in that book is that the Democrats need to:
Mr. Moulitsas and Mr. Armstrong wrote the usual platitudes about returning power to the ordinary folk, but if you read their book from cover to cover (it doesn’t take long, it’s really quite short and a “fast read”), you’ll realise at the end that what they want to do is create a Republican-style “command control” system.
Not only is the system Kos and Armstrong prescribe un-Democratic, but it’s positively unworkable. Imagine the DNC trying to give “marching orders” to NARAL, the Sierra Club, or ANSWER–they’d tell the DNC to stuff it. End of Kos’ plan.
A better plan would be for representatives of all of these groups to come together, work out how they can join in a coalition to move towards their political goals, and then work like hell to keep that coalition from falling apart…which would require LOTS of input from people, NOT filtered through blogs like DailyKos but through face-to-face contact.
Anyway, I understand that the book will be available through public libraries, so you needn’t spend $25 to read it.
One key thing to remember is that neither Markos Moulitsas (Kos) nor Jerome Armstrong are “liberals” or even “progressives”–I consider them to be DINOs who favour an expansionist, militarily aggressive US foreign policy and social policies that would fit quite comfortably in with most Republicans–and they view the “special interest groups” who form the core activists of the Democratic Party with as much hostility and suspicion as the Repubicans. That worldview informs “Crashing the Gates” and it’s something you need to keep in mind as you read it.
Beats sitting there with a thumb up your bum, doesn’t it?!
“–but they ARE things we need to remember when reading “Crashing the Gates”.
You bet your ASS there are.
AG
…”Crashing the Gates”, please see Eugene’s diary at MyLeftWing. The review is not a bash but is balanced and points out both the good and bad of the book.
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5455
I think Eugene is very insightful in his review and he makes a key point: Moulitsas and Armstrong deride ideology throughout the book, but ideology is precisely what’s lacking in today’s Democratic Party and is key to reviving it.
Anyway, read the review for yourself and the book, too, and make up your own mind.
Y’know…I don’t HAVE to read the book.
I saw the moivie.
The dKos movie.
No matter WHAT line he hands ourt, Moulitsos is just old, power politics in a new getup. I watched hhis game first hand.
Complete with protestations of innocence and ”staying above the fray” while underlings do the dirty work.
He’s actually very “presidential”.
And…he may very well be quite correct in his pragmatic assessment that ideology doesn’t really mean shit.
I wonder what Jefferson and Franklin and Tom Paine would have said to that.
He’s a new age political hustler.
An “Information Age” hustler.
And hiis time may hhave come.
We shall see.
One way or another, I’m not getting on THAT bus, myself.
I hear rumors that it is headed in the same direection as the BushCo bus.
Lockdown City.
Only difference…it’s the other side of town.
AG
A quick aside…
A diary here linked to an instigation inspiration that tracked back to also being involved in a train wreck at the other place. The key to net advertising is gathering info and the pocket is the same benefitting from right and left.
Great Diary! You’ve grabbed ahold now don’t let go.
If I could have given your comment a “10,” I would have.
I have long felt that the image of local Democratic Parties as empty shells is one of the most insidious delusions among progressives. It fosters an entirely false belief that, if we only bothered to put in a little extra time, progressive activists could be running the Democratic Party. It thus follows that our failure to have more say in the Democratic Party must be entirely our own fault.
As you point out, the Democratic Party is anything but a shell. And though they want progressives’ votes, they don’t particularly want our ideas, and they certainly don’t want our backtalk. In this sense, Crashing the Gates sounds like (and I should stress that I haven’t read it, but your description sounds like about what one would expect) just the latest attempt to marginalize progressive voices in the Democratic Party in the name of winning elections. This sort of thing has been failing the party for most of the last quarter century. I’m not sure why we should believe that it will succeed today. And if it does somehow succeed in winning an election or two, for progressives it will be, at best, a pyrrhic victory.
I am a veteran foot soldier on many camoaigns. I show up at campaign headquaters and will not leave until I have a duty to perform. I do not wait for the precinct, the county, the state or some volunteer coordinator to plug me in but then I am a wee bit pushy. LOL
If your local Democratic Party organisation is moribund, incompetent, or uncooperative, then you have the right as a citizen to get together with a bunch of other people, form your own group (informally or formally), and advocate for issues.
Contact your local representatives.
Print up flyers at the local photocopy store (such as Kinko’s) and hand them out door to door.
You don’t need the official approval of some Democratic Party official to do that. It’d be nice to coordinate your efforts with them, but if they won’t coordinate with, throw your own party!
Oh, and start blogging LOCALLY–have a small, free blog (such as my own blog at Blogger.com, which is free and easy to use) and use that as a bulletin board for you and your group to keep in touch–although face-to-face and phone contact is superior if you are entirely local.
Start with 10 people in your are and go from there. Others will join you as you make yourselves known in the community.
Does this sound Pollyannaish and un-curmudgeonly? Well, so it is. I’m in a cheerful mood today. Maybe we CAN make a difference.
could not agree more. Get people of like minds together and work on issues together or even for a candidiate. That is how most small but soon influential democratic clubs got their start.
Understood, and am going to do both.
demondeac: Thanks for this! As a new foot soldier myself, we all need some encouragement from time to time. I’m sure every Dem Congressional district is different, with different challenges. I live in a very red one, but we have been able to open a full time Dem office in our county, and manning the phones has been an eye opening experience. We may not win in Nov, but we are going to be a lot closer to winning than in 04. Who knows, we may even pull off a big upset. I’m sure of this though, if we continue to sit on our hands, the outcome for 06,08,10 ad nauseam will simply be more of the same. Even though I am a “senior citizen” with no kids, I can’t allow myself to sit still for that! Thanks again, and keep working.
I felt a little inspired after reading your diary, so I went in search of an international component of the DNC. I found this site Democrats Abroad Canada. I plan on calling them while I am on vacation next week.
As my union president says, “If everyone does a little, a lot gets done.”
I’m getting involved in local politics in order to dethrone Joe Lieberman. Should be interesting. I feel a little silly, “Hi. I’m here because the senator you’ve been working with for the last 16 years is now a danger to the party. No, I haven’t been involved in politics before, but if Joe Lieberman is re-nominated, I’m not sure I can stand to live in this state anymore. Oh, so you ran his campaign in ’04? Interesting. So… Can I lick some stamps?”
I think I can play it cool…
If the party were a dynamo of furious coordinated action, yet losing, that would be very bad. If it flaccid and comatose, yet almost winning, this is cause for hope.