So I never really expected to write a diary, but here we are I guess…this is my first one. Although I’ve always wanted to write one, I never really had anything to write about…until now. Recently, as you may or may not know, the Michigan Democrats had a convention. As someone who has begun to get more and more involved with the party, I thought this this might be a good opportunity to listen to what people had to say – and maybe contribute some ideas of my own. However, despite the fact that I like to consider myself a politically active individual, I was not prepared for the workings of a convention. So consider this diary a mixture between a sort of “How to Conventions for Dummies” and my thoughts on the party, the caucuses, and the candidates. So, without further ado, head under the fold, and my story will unfold!
Saturday, February 14th. A day of very early mornings and very late nights. And because I was young and single, I naturally dug myself out of the fresh snow and headed for the convention. Upon arriving at Cobo Hall, I scanned the atrium quickly, found the horde of UAW workers heading in one direction, and followed them. Soon I had arrived at the registration counters, registered, and found myself standing between two counters – one with signs reading “I’m Ready for Hillary!” and one with signs reading “Ready for Warren”. I’m surprised there weren’t casualties. Without picking up either sign, I headed down the escalators and found the real action.
Despite me being a half hour early, I found a healthy crowd down this corridor. At the very front was Lon Johnson, our current chair, collecting signatures to qualify for his reelection. Behind him were two guys working for the candidates for Black Caucus Chair, passing out stickers and asking for our vote. Given that I was a) not a member of the caucus and b) not black, I didn’t really think that I should involve myself in their leadership elections, but apparently a lot of people who were not part of the caucus nor black were packed into the room by both candidates and were able to vote for the leadership. In my opinion, that makes precisely zero sense, but, hey, it was my first time. Before I had had much time to get my bearings, I had been accosted by Dr. Anil Kumar (who lost in the primary for the 11th District House race), who hastily pressed a business card into my hand and told me that he was running in 2016. Guess he wanted to get a fast start. So, still completely clueless, I asked someone how this convention worked, and finally understood the structure: so basically, there are three sessions of two hours in individual rooms. From 8-10 and 10-noon, people break off into their own constituency caucuses, and discuss the issues that challenge that constituency, as well as elect leadership. After a lunch break, everyone breaks off into congressional district caucuses from 1-3, and does pretty much the same as before. After that, from about 3:30 to 5:30 everyone convenes for the big election of the chair and 1st vice chair. With that known, and with not many caucuses that interested me for the first session, I hastily ducked into the Progressive Caucus.
Any impression I had that the Progressives trended on the younger side quickly dissipated upon entering the room. The average age of the caucus might’ve been at about 60 (no offence to the sixty year youngs reading this!) As I took my seat, I saw Paul Clements and his wife quietly sit behind me. I had picked up three handouts from the back of the room, and, well, I could’ve left right then and there. The chair, Bob Alexander (a candidate for MI-08 in ’04 and ’08 against Rogers as I later found out), introduced himself to everyone, and then began to read straight from the handouts. It’s not that there was nothing good in the handouts, but I expected a greater vision that went beyond reciting strategies that were literally three years old. Granted, the strategies aren’t necessarily bad, but I think this is a place where younger activists need to take leadership. After that, leadership elections occurred and we left.
For the next session, as a young Democrat, I thought it would be reasonable to stop by at the Youth Caucus. Now, the Youth Caucus, which represents the interests of Democrats aged 16-35 was amazing, and much more relaxed. It started with the relatively young State Rep. Jeremy Moss of Southfield introducing a unity slate of candidates that we elected in all of two seconds. After that, we introduced ourselves and started talking about ideas to help mobilize the millennial vote. If it sounds like I’m waxing enthusiastic about the Youth caucus, you aren’t wrong. A college student recommended rebuilding the Young Democrats infrastructure, to run regular voter registration drives and promote Democratic issues to high school students. Within minutes of the caucus adjourning, he had started working with a few high-schoolers to get that done. Another recommended that we pressure the party to push larger, more positive themes, rather than just attack Snyder, as Schauer had done in 2014. Within minutes, he had a team around him, trying to figure out how to get that done. This room was teeming with ideas and energy, a contrast to the Progressive caucus. I left the room confident that Rep Moss was right – this is the future of the party.
After lunch, we had the district caucuses. Because my district (MI-14) had done really well for itself, and I didn’t really feel eligible to vote that day anyways, being a newcomer, I decided to go with a friend down to MI-08’s district caucus. If I had known that the interim of the 8th district caucus was the same stodgy speaker that had led the Progressive Caucus, I’d have turned back, but unfortunately, I took my seat quietly as Bob Alexander took the podium again. We elected a slate of delegates with precisely zero controversy, and had a few speakers come in. We did nothing here, although Bob Alexander did talk about how much friendlier the district had become, from strong KKK to “only” strong GOP. In his words, “It could be worse.” Real inspiring stuff – I just put this caucus meeting in for completionist’s sake.
Now, you may have noticed that I had mentioned speakers in the last paragraph. Throughout the day, a lot of officials, from judges to congressional representatives to even the two Senators had come in to speak to various caucuses. The Progressive caucus was graced by Rep. Dingell, Rep. Lawrence and Sen. Stabenow, while the Youth Caucus saw an astounding number of appearances: State Rep Moss, Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner, East Lansing Mayor Nathan Tripplet, Rep. Lawrence, Sen. Peters and MI-07 candidate Gretchen Driskell. Now, I’ll cover each of their speeches in the order that they happened at the big convention, because it’s easier that way. I’ll also end with a list of who I thought the best and worst appearances of the day came from. I just think these appearances bear mentioning, as part of my convention guide.
So, finally, we came to the main event. We started off with the two Senators, Stabenow followed by Peters. Stabenow’s speech was really good, miles better than her usual speaking - probably because it was inspired by 42’s speech at the DNC in 2012. Same themes, even some similar phrases “We aren’t right all the time, and a stopped clock is right twice a day!” to “Well, here’s some numbers/here’s more numbers!” But the most crowd pleasing line was absolutely her own, and came when people applauding the achievements of Democratic presidents: “…matched only by the job growth in 1995 under a President Clinton! …..hmmm…..a President Clinton….hmmm…”
Senator Peters’s speech was much more cookie-cutter - very typical stuff for a Democratic politician: opposition to the TPP, the need for labor, the need to preserve our environment, etc. That isn’t to say it was boring – it had its moments: “You’re looking at the president of the Democratic freshman class, and believe me, we speak with a unified voice!” The best line of the speech, similar to the senior senator’s, came at the very end: “and we’re gonna have to make sure that Michigan goes to the Democratic nominee [for president]…whoever she is!”
So after the two heavy hitters, we slowed down. A lot. We heard from John Conyers, who understandably gave a slow speech, then heard from Brenda Jones, who gave a really boring address, and then Dan Kildee, who seemed really annoyed at the House more than anything, and the two fresh(wo)man reps: Dingell and Lawrence, both of whom were pretty cookie-cutter, but lacked the crowd pleasing lines that Peters had. Slowly, people were starting to leave, having heard the two senators speak, but then Andy Meisner took the stage, and people stopped leaving. The 41 year old Oakland County treasurer showed confidence and energy while speaking that not even the two senators had. Delivering a broad vision (“A Michigan where we have public transit so that James Robertson never has to walk 18 miles again…a Michigan where we take pride in our natural resources, rather than exploit them….a Michigan that attracts, not repels, young people”) and plenty of crowd pleasing lines (“There’s just one roadblock [to public transit] – two words and a letter – L. Brooks Patterson!”), he evinced the necessary confidence and a readiness to campaign for something as small as County Exec in 2016 to something as big as governor in 2018. If Andy Meisner hasn’t achieved something big by the end of the decade, I’ll eat my hat.
So finally, the time came for us to elect the chair. It was a tough vote, with the incumbent, Lon Johnson, eking out a win with a paltry 100% of the vote. His acceptance speech was really illuminating, and will be further covered in the analysis diary. It centered around three grand themes: be the party of bold ideas, provide Democratic (big D) solutions to local problems, and finally, continue building the party more. Because apparently Lon Johnson thinks he won the governor’s election, the first part sounded quite a bit like a State of the State election, while the last part might’ve resembled a death knell to our members, as Lon called for us doubling our emails, in addition to membership, fundraising, and social media presence.
Alright, so my summary of the day’s proceedings is over. What I’m gonna do is link ya over to an analysis section, where I will provide my own State of the Party analysis, taking a look at the state of the caucuses I saw, the state of the candidates/officials we have, and a state of the party, examining the performance in 2014 as well as Chairman Johnson’s speech in greater detail. Feel free to ask me anything in the comments, and criticisms are appreciated!
6:32 PM PT: Here's a link to the second part of the series: http://www.dailykos.com/...
and the third part of the three part series: http://www.dailykos.com/...