Well now that I've (hopefully) gotten your attention, I'll let you in on a little secret... You know all those things you've been told about crashing the gate, and taking over the Democratic Party?
Well most of them are wrong... Ass-backwards to be precise.
You can't take over the Democratic Party by voting Democratic at your local polling station, donating to Democratic candidates online, or even hitting the streets volunteering for Democratic candidates...
Don't get me wrong, all of those actions are fantastic, and are absolutely vital to grow the Democratic voting block, but those actions are all geared towards electing specific Democratic candidates during specific election cycles... and the Democratic Party itself, the party apparatus behind those candidates we all volunteer for, donate to, and vote for; is eternal.
It will outlive every single Democratic elected official currently in office, and it will select the replacement candidates as each of those current Democratic elected officials leave office.
Simply put, what we've been engaging in in the Netroots has been very short-term thinking.
Democratic candidates will come and Democratic candidates will go, but the party apparatus will remain unchanged... Unless and until WE decide to step in and change it.
We're going about things all wrong. We've been trying to change things within the party from the top up, and then we get pissed when that doesn't work?
How much sense does that make?
I didn't have anything to do today, so I've spent my day reading comments, and diaries written by some advocating we all take our ball and voluntarily go to the ineffectual wasteland of 3rd parties, and others written by people that clearly have no idea how the Democratic Party actually works.
It's been an eye opening day for me to say the least, and to be completely honest I've been equally shocked, and horrified to find out that so many people on Daily Kos have never been involved with Democratic Party politics, because if they ever had been they'd know how the party is designed to function, and they'd also know that sitting around on their ass complaining about their dissatisfaction with the party, or quitting the party entirely will accomplish exactly nothing towards their purported goal of changing the party.
For those of you bitching about how the Democratic Party apparatus operates, I have a question for you:
If you don't like it, then why have you never tried to change it?
The Democratic Party is ruled by it's regulations, bylaws, hierarchy system, and even State and Federal law. It's all very regimented... To ever have a hope of changing the party apparatus you have to first know what those rules, regulations, bylaws, and hierarchy system are to begin with, and then you need to become one of the people that have the authority to change them.
You don't like how the Democratic Party functions, and want to change the Democratic Party?
I know how you can do it.
The first thing you have to do (and this is a BIG one) is JOIN the goddamned Democratic Party!!!
That means get in touch with your local Democratic Party, and become an actual, official, dues-paying, card-carrying member of the Democratic Party.
(If you don't know if you have a local Democratic Party, or how to get in touch with them, I've put links to all 50 State Democratic Parties at the bottom of this diary. Get in touch with your State Party and they will direct you to your local Democratic Party.)
You don't get a say in how the party runs or does things if you're not a member... That's the way it works.
The second thing you'll want to do after joining your local party is to become a vital, active member of your local party... That means attending meetings, helping with fundraisers and events, doing whatever they need you to do, and even coming up with ideas yourself, and doing all the work required to make those ideas a reality.
It's quite often boring, thankless, slave labor, but if you prove yourself to be a hard, dedicated worker; you'll win over the allies you'll need later a lot quicker than if you don't put in the grunt work from the get-go.
If you don't put in the work, those of us that DO put in the work aren't going to listen to a damned thing you say, because we're not about to listen to someone who doesn't do anything tell those of us that do that we aren't doing it right, or aren't doing enough.
So be prepared to work your ass off, because you're going to have to win over people that have likely been doing the hard, thankless behind-the-scenes work of the Democratic Party for longer than I've even been alive.
You'll have to earn their respect, and trust me... that doesn't come cheaply.
So joining your local party, and working your ass off is a must if we ever want to change the Democratic Party... But why?
Well, I've got the answer for that too...
The National Democratic Party is made up of the State Democratic Parties, which in turn are made up of local Democratic Clubs, County Parties, District Committees, and State Central Committees.
You get control of the executive committees of enough Democratic Clubs, County Parties, District Committees, and State Central Committees; and you've got control of a State Party... You get control of enough State Parties, and you've got the National Party.
And viola... Instant change that only took years, and endless hours of thankless tasks to achieve!
What I'm proposing won't happen overnight, and it won't come easy... but it IS possible.
I know it is, because I've already done some of it.
Nearly 4 years ago I got pissed off with the Democratic Party, and I mean completely fed up... I was nearing the dreaded 3rd party wasteland I was so pissed off, and I was raised to be a good Democrat.
I come from good Finnish Union stock, grew up in a town that was founded by Finnish Communist immigrants, and being a liberal Democrat is practically written on my DNA.
So there I was, pissed at the political world, and ready to do something drastic... And then a guy running for State House knocked on my door to introduce himself, and ask for my support.
I told him I was through with the Democratic Party, bitched to him about my enormous disdain for the way the Democratic Party was doing things, and blathered on about my certain belief in the utter worthlessness of the party as a whole... and in response to my ranting he asked me why didn't I join my local party and work to change the things I didn't like within the party?
So that's what I did.
I went down and joined my local party that afternoon with the specific intention of transforming the Democratic Party into my vision of what it should be, instead of it transforming me into its ideal. After working my butt off, and proving myself to my fellow members, I was appointed to be Vice-Chair of my local party.. and I've been raising hell, and making changes ever since.
4 years ago we were one of the most republican House Districts in the entire state... The bigwigs told us not to waste our time supporting that guy that knocked on my door, because a proud, vocal, unapologetic Progressive Liberal Democratic candidate could never win a House District as red as ours...
Well guess what?
We said fuck that, because the big shots of Lansing didn't know our counties like we do, and we knew that our candidate COULD win, and that they were full of shit.
He came within 1 1/2 points of winning in 2006, and he would have won if he'd had the backing of the big boys... but he wasn't giving up, and if he was still willing to run again, we were going to move heaven and earth to deliver our counties for him.
And you know what happened in 2008?
The bigshots saw all of the hard work both our candidate, and our parties were putting in, and made our House District a targeted race. The money, and support came pouring in, and our candidate never backed down on a single one of his principles.... And in the end, our boy became the 2nd Democrat to ever be elected in our State House District's entire history, and he did it with one of the largest landslide victories of either party, republican or Democratic... In a formerly blood-red District.
Now we're hearing talk from Lansing that our boy is "the future of the Democratic Party in Michigan", and he hasn't even taken office yet... Yes, the very same too-liberal candidate that 3 years ago we were told not to waste our time on!
He won in a landslide of 60+% against a guy that was on the frontpage of all the local newspapers, and sent out tens of thousands of mailers claiming our candidate was a "dirty homosexual activist intent on pushing a radical homosexual agenda". No shit... That was really his campaign strategy.
Our candidate and our party's response to the slime? That everyone deserves equal treatment, and that the republican candidate should be ashamed of his uncalled for divisive hatemongering.
Our candidate isn't gay, and our State House District is small, and rural with a very small LGTB population... but neither he, nor we were willing to take the easy road, and throw them under the bus.
We took the high road - which let me tell you was the harder road to take in gun-lovin' mudtruck central... We stuck to our guns, and we won... and won BIG.
Now conventional wisdom would say that the republican running that type of campaign in such a red district should have been the one winning in a landslide... but the republican candidate, and the local republican parties didn't knock on over 40,000 doors in an election that had less than 52,000 voters, either.
We did the grunt work, so people knew us, they knew our candidate, and because they knew us, and knew our candidate, they trusted us.. and that's why we won.
We changed the face of the Democratic Party in our State House District, and turned 4 counties that were red just 4 short years before, solidly blue. The county parties of our District are stronger than ever, and if we continue to cultivate our county parties, that strength should last long after our State Representative Elect is term-limited out of office.
Next up on my agenda is our Democratic District Committee.
I've worked my ass off for years in not only my own county party, but by trying to help other county parties within our District where, and when I could, because like I said; I've always had a goal of changing the way the party does things from the very start of my involvement... and I was just appointed to be one of the 5 people on the nominating board for the District Committee's next Executive Committee, as a result of the goodwill that I've built among the District with all my hard work.
You might think that's not such a big deal... but my District Committee is made up of 11 county parties, and there's only 83 counties in the entire state of Michigan... So even though my county has one of the smallest populations in the state, I now have a big voice in who will be in charge of the District for the next 2 years, which just so happens to make up over 1/10 of the entire freakin' State Party!
I'm trying to effect change one county party at a time, one District Committee at a time; and when there are enough of us... Next up is the MDP, which by the way is already paying more attention to us than they ever did in the past. Our tiny little County Party had Governor Jennifer Granholm, Carl Levin, and Debbie Stabenow visit us during the course of a month and a half this past summer... and nothing like that has ever happened before.
So we're on their radar, and they're sitting up, and taking notice of us.
Now it might all seem like a lot of work, and it is... but this all happened in just over 3 years, with a literal handful of people.
Here's the thing I have come to suspect a lot of people on here don't know... One person can have a huge amount of influence, and enact a huge amount of change within the party, because there are seriously very few people willing to do anything within the party... If you're one of the handful of people doing the work, you get a big say in how those things are done, because no one else is willing to do the shit work that you're doing.
So unlike online activism, a single person can have a tremendous amount of power and influence with real-world participation within the party... Usually for no other reason than there's no one else willing to do what you will.
How long has the Netroots been trying to change the way the Democratic Party apparatus operates, and how much success have we actually had in accomplishing that change?
Imagine what what we could do in 3 years if we all joined our local parties, then sought leadership positions in those parties, and then went on from there up through the Democratic Party hierarchy?
Imagine what we could do if enough of us got involved so that we were the ones in the position to pen the Party bylaws?
It can be done, we just have to follow the rules, and work our way up the food chain... It's all right there in the bylaws too many on this site don't seem to know even exist.
The Democratic Party chooses what candidates to support, what initiatives they're going to back, and generally how the game is going to be played.
It's more powerful than any candidate, any Incumbent, or any single person... and WE could control it, if we wanted to; if we are willing to put in the work required.
So when we piss and moan about how we want the party to change, we should remember that we've never even really tried to change it, and therefor don't really have much of a right to bitch.
If you want my opinion, we don't get to bitch that those that do, aren't doing enough, or aren't doing it right...
If we want to bitch, and if we want to change the way the party apparatus functions, then WE need to become that apparatus.
I believe the Netroots is simultaneously thinking too big by trying to start off with controlling National elected officials, and not thinking big enough by not trying to gain control of the local parties, clubs, District, and State Central committees that make up the State Parties.
We talk about a bottom-up revolution, but we've been trying to affect that revolution from the top down, by going after party leaders to try to get them to do what we want; instead of trying to become those party leaders ourselves.
So there's my 2 cents, and here are some links to help put you in touch with your local partys...
I sincerely hope that some of you will put those links to good use, because I can't do this all on my own...