How Do We Take Back The Democratic Party?

[yuiyoshida]

[elleng]

1. WATCH THIS, everyone!

[yuiyoshida]

2. Yeah that was interesting

ne? Love @Thom_Hartmann

[PoiBoy]

3. He makes some really great points...

...the fact that the Cons are ONE state away from being able to change the Constitution should be of concern to every Progressive in the country...

Everyone on this site should view this video and share it wide and far, not to instill panic, but to incite activism.. this cancerous movement has got to be stopped...!!!

Thanks for posting...!!

[yuiyoshida]

4. I do hope everyone watches it

and gives it a K&R, would be nice

[think]

5. Thank you for posting. I do hope people watch. The information on becoming a

precinct committee person in one's community is very informative.

And the GOP being one state away from the 34 total necessary to call a constitutional convention should alarm all Democrats...

[yuiyoshida]

6. I really do hope people see this

as you said, its important.

[BainsBane]

7. This is the problem when people don't know civics

Is they believe this shit.

I'm on my Democratic senate district committee and am my ward's vice chair. This bears no relation to how the party or elections work in my state.

Power is indeed wielded at the local level. It is done through open elections for state legislative seats in which everyone can vote. The problem is that few bother if it's not a presidential year, which is how Republicans gain so much power. Even now DUers are focusing on who they want for pres in 2020.

You all just voted in primaries or caucuses, yet you spread a video claiming only committee members are allowed to do so. He says both parties work this way, before later in the video says that the committees are dominated by Republicans in most states. So what committees is he talking about? Or does he mean legislatures?

Then there is the rhetoric of taking the party "back." To when? the answer invariably is a period-either the early 60s or the 1930s--when Jim Crow prevailed. That's what Trump ran on. The largely white male Busters eagerly helped him win. Out of a 240 year American history in which the state has served--or even been run by--the country's leading financial interests, the "establishment" suddenly became a concern under a black president who might have been replaced by a woman.

AA members of this site have repeatedly said they find this language of "taking back" and reverting to the good ole days divisive and exclusionary. I can't imagine the OP would want to return to a time when citizens were interned based on ethic heritage. That language of reverting to the past used by Trump was widely criticized during the GE. It isn't any better when progressives use it. I suggest that it's either time to stop relying on lazy, ahistorical tropes (that is my assuming it comes from an ignorance of history rather than a desire to reproduce it) to think about the future party you do want, or admit the goal is to restrict political participation to those that enjoyed it "back" in the past the speaker is so nostalgic for.

[ancianita]

9. I hear you. Realism, civics and real politic is what Democrats need. Thanks.

I know this sounds arrogant, but still, I'm with Christopher Hitchens: all politics is yokel.

[LongTomH]

8. K&R! Remember, there are other down-ballot offices!

There may be some lower-level state and local offices where a Republican is running unopposed.

Also, find out how delegates for the Democratic National Committee are picked in your state.