Exactly who gets to vote for that chair? Do they hold elections? I doubt we have any say. If we did we would have fix this shit in 2016. Instead the fucking elite still hold all the sway with the DNC and we will never get anything better. They are going move futher to the right as they always do.
It's a start, but not voting is probably what the party elites are counting on. You won't see CNN or MSNBC emphasizing the importance of this election, but that may be intentional.
Local meetings are an eye opener into the bowels of the party. Lots of people show up trying to find a way to engage with the party. What they find tends to be people obsessed with raising money, people looking to wrangle large teams of volunteer block walkers, and people doing busy work that's totally disconnected from the candidates or the other party offices.
The Democrats don't function as a party. They function as a branded franchise.
This aligns with my experience. I tried to get involved and was met with near hostility from someone who is now a multiple times over failed candidate because I didn’t value things precisely as they did and wasn’t interested in just serving them.
To be clear I volunteered a TON for some candidates I have believed in. Including doing the grunt work, and had plenty to offer.
No, just showing up without a defined purpose is just a blackhole of nothing. Either intentionally or accidentally the system has been set up to prevent normal people from getting past the local level.
In early 2009, about 4 months after Obama took office, I realized he wasn't going to do one of his main campaign promises , which was to shut down Guantanamo bay. He repeatedly promised to shut it down to stop the abuses and allow the US to take the high road and fight evil the right way. Then he did nothing. I realized Obama was far too centrist and that the US was going to get a lot worse than better. I called the DNC and deregistered with the party. I told them why.
Call, if you're registered (for primary voting as I was( and tell them they're failed assholes.
I only got about halfway through it, but there was a lot about the DNC being ineffective and overly focused on hierarchy and order in times when norms are being completely trashed by the other side.
Yes, and I was thinking the same thing about others as I read posts here. Jon is the key - His tireless work for the 9/11 first responders, And his consistent calling out bullshit on both sides makes him the person that we trust to be able to believe in these other people.
Nothing is possible in isolation. I don't know of any better way than finding the people who've been able to have the biggest impact, so far, and trying to join up with them and push to amplify and improve it.
Don't you all in the US vote on like, everyone and everything? Can you vote for another dem against a dem locally? How do all these ancient people stay in their seat for so long?