Want to "upgrade" the Democratic Party?
Given the number of diaries expressing disappointment/disapproval/disgust with the Democratic Party, what follows are instructions for how to take over the Party, and make it into the kind of political party that you think it ought to be.
First, you need to clarify for yourself what you’d like to see change. Do you just feel the Party needs to nominate more progressive candidates, or do you also want to see changes in how the Party does business? What Party priorities are you happy with and which do you want to see change? If what you most want to see change is the obscene amount of money in politics, that requires more than changing one political party, but electing a whole lot of progressives would be the place to start. If you think that the two party system is so hopelessly corrupt or unworkable that we need to just start over, I can’t advise you on that. You’re talking revolution, and as a long ago student of history I can tell you to be careful what you wish for.
You’ll need to understand the structure of the Party, because you're going to need to change it from within. You may be able to destroy something you don't understand or aren’t a part of, but you can't substantially modify it. You are also almost certainly going to have to start making your changes from the bottom up - you can't “get at” the top levels of the Party to effect change without first going through the bottom levels. Unless you are a very convincing speaker or truly gifted politically, you are also going to need help. So find friends with similar political convictions — other Kossacks near you might be a good place to start. NOTE: If you are a very convincing speaker or truly gifted politically and you’re progressive, please consider running for office!
The Democratic Party’s website can help you with some of this. The Democratic Platform lays out the current priorities. Read it and look for things you disagree with or things you believe should have been given more emphasis. There's a page that goes into detail on the Party's organization and another that has links to all the state Democratic Parties. Some state party websites have all the information you need to find your local party meetings, or they have links to local party websites (some of which are very good, some have only contact info, some are really minimal or non-existent).
Right now is a good time to become involved in the Democratic Party. Local Parties — county, township, legislative district, depending on your state — are holding their reorganization meetings over the next few weeks. That’s when the chair and officers for your local Party are chosen. Be aware that you have to be registered/affiliated as a Democrat to show up and vote at local Party meetings or to run for any office (but that may vary by state, so check). In many states it is already too late to declare that you want to run for a local Party office, or your local Party may already have held their reorganization meeting. Please be aware that while local Party meetings are generally open to anyone who wants to attend, many of the monthly meetings are executive committee meetings where the officers do Party business but there is no option for input from observers. Those meetings are still a good opportunity to figure out which local officials may share your views or which you think really need to be replaced, to meet other people interested in local politics, and to introduce yourself after the meeting and ask how to volunteer.
Be persistent — don’t just go to one meeting and give up — show up regularly and volunteer to help — and understand that meetings are run under a set of rules, boring rules, usually Robert’s Rules or the simplified version of them. There is a reason for the damn boring rules. Meetings of more than just a few people that are held without rules usually don’t get much done. Or they get taken over by whoever talks loudest and talks over everybody else, and/or whoever is most charismatic (that’s how the Republicans got Trump out of a large field that included actually qualified contenders).
Under most sets of rules (here’s a link to a Robert’s Rules cheat sheet) the meeting is required to start with a bunch of boring stuff — call to order, approval/correction of the minutes of the last meeting, several standard reports, maybe some carried-over issues from the last meeting, then finally “new business” — which is where you might be able to make suggestions. Then there will be any announcements, and a time and place set for the next meeting. Pay attention to committee reports and what other people bring up as new business — see who’s doing the stuff you’d like to help with, and if they don’t ask for volunteers then and there, go up and talk to them after the meeting, introduce yourself and ask how you could help. If your local (or state) Party has a really useless website, maybe you could volunteer to fix that! And again, be persistent.
You may well have to go to more than one meeting to get people to pay attention to you, particularly if you live in a large, heavily Democratic county. Nobody who’s trying to get things done wants to assign something important to someone who’s an unknown quantity only to have that person flake out on them, so don’t be surprised if the first things you’re asked to help with seem trivial. Prove you are reliable and trust me, you’ll get as much work to do as you can handle — and people will start to listen to you at meetings. If you live in a county or a state with few Democrats, it may be easier to influence your local Party.
So here’s where you start:
- Make yourself a list of what you’d like to change about the Democratic Party
- Get well enough acquainted with the structure of the Party to understand where to start and what to target
- Identify like minds who can help you effect change
- Find where your local Party meets and when the next meeting is
- Go to local Party meetings, volunteer, get involved and elect more and better Democrats!
Remember, if you want to change an organization that’s close to 200 years old (and is largely run by people like me who were activists 50 years ago), you’ll need to be persistent, persuasive, and patient. Being civil will also help, because if you go in to this intending to announce that the local, state and national Democratic Parties all suck, none of the people you need to convince will even listen to you. Even if that is what you truly believe, find ways of saying it persuasively but politely.
It won’t happen overnight, but it could happen before 2020 if enough like-minded people are willing to put in the work.
