Tweet
Last week the Dog wrote a post about laying out the difficulties of starting a new political party to the Left of the Democratic Party. If you want to read it you can find it here. The challenges are extensive to say the least. Since the Dog thinks that is a bad idea he urged those who might be thinking of this path to stay and work within the Democratic Party. While not everyone agreed (we are all Liberals after all) there were a couple who pointed out while the Dog was showing a problem, he did not really offer the means to a solution. This is a fair observation and so the follow is some practical advice for those who want to take over the Democratic Party and move it more to the Left.
Getting Started
So you have decided to take over the Democratic Party? Great! Let’s start with a reality check. You are not going to take over the national Party in one fell swoop. Unless you have about 1 million fellow travelers who all are on the exactly the same page this is going to take some time and a lot of work. However, any attempt to influence the national policy of a nation of 305 million is going require both of those things, so don’t let that get you down, just focus on where you can be effective and grow you efforts.
Now, let’s be really clear, what you are about to embark on is to become a politician. You may not be facing the voters in general, but you are getting involved in an organization that operates on democratic principals. This means majority rules voting and in many cases hard core parliamentary tactics. You are going to have to be able to persuade and be ready to compromise from time to time to move your point of view forward. This is going to be true no matter what party you get involved with, new or old, so again, don’t let that deter you, just recognize it.
In order to have the fastest level of effect, you want to start actually outside the Party. You are going to try to get elected to the County or State level Executive Committee, to do this you will need supporters, especially if you are not well known in the Party now. What you need is a group of folks who have the same desire you do to change things and you need to be organized. On the internet it is easy to find folks who think like you do, but how do you find them in your neck of the woods? The Dog has a couple of ideas that might help you.
First off, don’t reinvent the wheel. Look for any group which labels itself as a Liberal or Progressive Caucus in your County Party. There may or may not be one, but if there is they are the folks you want to hook up with. If there is not one, well that is probably the first thing you need to do, found one. Still it does no good to found a Caucus of One, so you have to find like minded folks. Luckily there is a place where you can start!
Use the Social Media sites like Face Book and the DFA site to find the folks in your area. They are simple to use and they are a great place to get a feel for how many folks think the way you do in your area.
Drinking Liberally was founded to get like minded Liberals together in the days when it seemed like the entire country had gone all the way to the Right. Many large and not so large cities have more than one branch of this group. Go there, buy a drink and start chatting up the Liberals and Progressives about the changes you want to make. See if you can find folks who are ready to do some real work to change the Democratic Party. You are likely to find those who are already involved, but there are always some who are ready to be activated and become activists. Start getting them to coalesce around the idea of taking over the County Party. Yeah, that’s right, you are going have to start at the County level to get to the State level.
Getting Into The Structure
Now that you have your group of supporters, you have to get into the Party structure. In general this is not that hard. In Colorado if you are a registered Democrat you can go to any of the meetings of your County Executive Committee. You can’t vote there, after all you not on the Committee, yet, but you can see what is going on and if you want to address them you can arrange to do so, if you ask in advance. You and as many of the folks from your Caucus who are going run for the Committee should start going and addressing the Committee as often as you can. These are the folks you want to influence, so you have to start being heard and hear what they have to say in return.
You should also join a committee or two as well. Party organizations are always short of help, all political organizations are. You will do two things by joining a finance or publicity committee. First off you will be meeting more of the people you will need to vote for you when you run for Party office. Second, and probably more importantly you will be showing you are there to make the Party better through your thinking and hard work (never forget the hard work part!). Be sure to get as many of your Caucus to do the same, the point is to be able to make the case you are the new energy and direction of the Party.
Getting Elected
Let’s face it, the folks who influence the Party are the ones elected as Party Officials. In Colorado, the Chair and Vice Chair automatically are part of the State Executive Committee. There is a chance you could get to one of these positions in your first go ‘round, but don’t count on it. If you are going to run for those positions be sure you know what the main jobs of these positions are and that you have the time and ability to do it.
Just a quick story by way of example about this; Adam’s county recently elected a new Chair. The main job of the Chair is to raise money for our candidates and for the Party. However, the person we elected works for the US Post Office. This means the Hatch Act applies to him. He can not raise money for political Party’s or candidates. When we elected him we did not know this, the Dog is not quite clear if he knew. In any case it is a major problem for the Party. Don’t be a problem for the Party you are trying to change, eh?
In Colorado, we reorganize every two years, on odd numbered years. You will have to find out when your Party does this, but it is not a bad thing if the next chance to get elected is not until early 2011. This gives you plenty of time to get known and into the structure. Even if you don’t think you are ready to run for Chair or Vice Chair, you can still try to get onto the State Executive Committee. The State Party allows one delegate to the EC from each county for every 10,000 votes cast for the either the Democratic Gubernatorial candidate or Presidential candidate, which ever is higher. In Adams County that is another 18. This is probably your best bet for getting to the State level.
All of your Caucus must attend the reorganization meeting! This is where all the voting is done. If you have laid the ground work and bring 20 or 25 of your Caucus to one of these meetings you have a really good chance of getting elected.
Getting to the State on your own is not really going to do that much, after all there are 64 counties in the State, so there are at least 128 automatic delegates to the State Party. You will need to get as many as of your group elected as possible if you want to be able to influence policy. The Dog did say this was going to take time. Once you have achieved this level your job is the same as it was at the County level. Make your voice heard and start putting together a Caucus who agrees with your ideas, but this time from other County Democratic Parties.
Summary
So, lets sum this up. It is going to take a heck of a lot of work and some pretty good amount of time for you to make a difference. It should, as you are trying to influence the fate of the nation, you should not do that without proving yourself in some fashion or another.
The basic premise in getting this done is, Organize, Organize, Organize. Start with what you want to achieve. Get some like minded folks together. Agree on your tactics, then all you have to do is the hard part, do what you agreed to do! Work you but off for your goal and stay focused.
Be sure to know the players and the rules! You don’t want to have your big move be cut off by a parliamentary tactic. Take a little time to find out who is the big man or woman in the party and where they stand. They might be an opponent, but they might be an ally, find out for sure before you act.
Get involved in the Party. Be at all the events; be at as many of the Committee meetings as you can. Be clear and advocate for what you think is right, but remember others will be doing the same. This is politics so shouting is not going to help a lot, you have to be ready to persuade. You will also have to be ready to give ground and compromise from time to time in order to get to your overall goal.
Once you get to the State level, start over and do the same.
This is general outline of several years’ worth of work. You will have challenges which it does not address, but the key here is to set out your goals and get people to agree to them. The Dog is going to end as he began; this is the job of becoming a politician. You might never run for public office, but you are going to be running for Party office. You will have the same challenges of convincing people of you ideas and ability to follow through on them that public officials have. The good news is more Dems are likely to be sympathetic to point of view than the public. Don’t let that convince you this is going to be a cake walk. Others who have strong ideas are doing exactly the same thing as you are. You are not going to let them walk all over you, why should you think they will let you walk all over them?
So, get out there and get to work! The US desperately needs a better Democratic Party and the only way it is going to happen is by your (and the Dog’s) hard work. There is a lot of it to do and it won’t get any smaller by waiting, so get busy!
The floor (and the Party) is yours.
"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"
15 Comments
Some of the most powerful politicians are people you have never heard of and who have never been elected at the polls. Being the power in the Party is an underrated way to effect change.
Thanks Dog. You did a good thing here. I’ll comment on my own latest post on HR 676 and the three step-strategy directing people here.
Thanks, that is a nice thing to do! Even though I disagree with your strategy. I did not want to go and rain on that parade. I just think the longer we take the less likely anything getting done is.
Great piece, Dog! A great followup.
There is only one way to win real change; make companies instruct their lobbyists to stand down from pressuring politicians on their votes. In the 1960’s, activists pressured politicians because they controlled legislation. Today, it’s lobbyists that control Washington, and the legislation it produces.
Obama will sign any bill that reaches his desk. He is relying on the pressure from lobbyists, and their money, to produce the final bill that will please corporate interests.
Companies are not concerned with voters/consumers because we aim our efforts at each other; not at the power behind the curtain. Redirect our peaceful energy at companies, or more precisely, their income, and they will begin to listen to voters/consumers.
The proposition to companies by activists is simple: Stop blocking real change or we will take away your incurious, mindless, controllable consumers, that respond to marketing like Pavlovian lab experiments, and replace them with calculating consumers with an agenda.
Sorry, I can’t agree there is any single solution to our political difficulties. It ignores the reality on the ground. There are lots of issues and it is complex system. That means any solution will have to have a lot of moving parts and be complex itself. Simple solutions to complex issues is part of how we got to where we are today.
Long term taking over the Democratic Party is not only an important part of any solution it is the responsibility of this generation. We will run the world sooner rather than later, might as well start getting in position to do it, eh?
the same work could be done building 3rd Party formations, and you wouldn’t waste all the time fighting entrenched interests, who can and do wield effective carrots and sticks to avert threatening change.
and, c’mon, real change to the Democratic Party is threatening change, or else, why bother?
Change from within, more and better Democrats has been the strategy for the last 30 years, and look where it has gotten you . . . the Leadership of the (D)’s has done nothing but chase the Republicans to the Right, and there is no going back. That Donkey is not going to turn around, if you want to go the other way, you have to find another steed.
“That Donkey is not going to turn around, if you want to go the other way, you have to find another steed.” ; I completely agree but you’ll never convince Dog of that.
“We will run the world sooner rather than later, might as well start getting in position to do it, eh?” ; Dog, I find this display of arrogance very disturbing. It is the very hubris that has put us into the position we’re currently in.
“Long term taking over the Democratic Party is not only an important part of any solution it is the responsibility of this generation.” ;just as taking over the Republican Party is or working with others for election of Independents (which STILL happens to be the fastest growing segment of registered voters.) or bringing the focus to all that by altering the environment so much, we are in effect eroding the foundation of the house that has been built(and it IS eroding fast).
In the past I’ve compared the (D) Party to a vast heat sink, designed to absorb efforts at reform.
So SomethingTheDogSaid has a suggestion – throw a lot more heat at the problem!
nope, that thing is designed to absorb and dissipate such attempts, just by default, just sitting there, with all the behind the scenes levers available on all the committees and caucuses, and if the Leadership actually gets concerned that a grassroots movement is taking over their machine, then watch out, they’ve got more heavy duty tools at their disposal.
its a recipe for failure and burnout, maybe with a bit of co-option and corruption thrown in.
start from scratch, appeal to disaffected (I)’s, (D)’s, (R)’s and non-voters, throw in some prolonged high-unemployment, and watch out, you may have a movement on your hands.
But that is exactly the point. You have less work in taking over an existing party than you do in forming a new one. Both are a lot of work, both are frankly hard to do, but with an existing party you don’t have the issues of getting on the ballot, attracting candidates and staffers and becoming national.
That makes forming a new party much much harder and longer a process. But if you think you can do it, don’t wait, start now. Everyone I hear talking about a new party is just talking about it like it is something which will just happen. I have seen no plan, no discussion of methods, no discussion of funding, in short none of the things which actually doing it would require. It is vapor ware and it distracts from actually trying to get things done.
But I think there are a large number of people who would rather talk than act, so I guess I should not be surprised.
Well thanks for encouraging people to change the Dems. I am completely frustrated to the point of thinking third party. There has to be another way. Corporatism has to die in this country. The pendulum has to swing the other way in the direction of individual rights.
I think healthcare reform may be the watershed for the Dems. We need turnout and independents to continue winning. If Dems screw the pooch on healthcare they are totally screwed. If they bust the budget with a bad bill and don’t give anyone a real choice or public option, they will probably be in the wilderness as the Republicans are right now. The myth of the tax and spend liberal will rear its head and we will have no defense if they pass a bad bill. The plan right now is to give money to drug companies which the Republicans are ok with anyway, after all they did that too. Then the kill the public option while simultaneously requiring people to buy insurance they can’t afford. All the insurance/drug/medical device donors are happy. The Dem brand is screwed and the budget is busted on the Democrats watch. Yes the Republicans did it too, but that was for a good cause…freedom.
The plan is corporatism the Republicans can believe in. Oh and Dems will have passed it on their watch with control of the House, Senate and the White House.
As my great friend and Obama supporter (adorer really) who has had her head buried in her thesis said yesterday. “Wait what do you mean we are not going to get healthcare? Don’t we have the House and the Senate and the White House? What? “
If the Donkey isn’t going to turn around, then for the Dem party it’s not a big problem. Just go ass first. LOL
It’s not like we didn’t learn from the Republicans how to go ass-first.
yeah thats a thought.
new Party slogan: Follow the Backwards Ass!
Stop, this I don’t understand.
Why not start another party?
The Germans have I think 3-4 parties, the more conservative party has been in power for awhile and you starting to see problems with entitlements they have, they’ll push back eventually…
The point is, they have several options, the Greens being one of the two more liberal parties, see I said TWO. One to the extreme left and one more to the center.
I think the Labor movement is quite RIPE for a foundation for a new party.
That is THE working class in a nutshell, who struggles more? Who do the Republicans vilify? The Unions! Who has quite a bit of MONEY? The Unions.
While the AFL-CIO and SEIU are not on the same page on many subjects, but are on most subjects, why not start with them?
There is a Labor Party in Britain and it represents USUALLY the Working Class in the UK and while in power, somewhat discredited by scandal, they still are the party of the “people”.
We don’t have a “People’s Party” we have a party controlled by corp interest with a few sprinkles of true liberalism mixed in.
We could “peel off” a few of the Bernie Sanders types with a seriously LEFT party and empower the poor/poor workers, immigrants and others both sides care less about.
But before we signal the end of support for Obama and the current crop of Dems, let’s see what happens with Health Care, Climate Change and few other pressing issues.
If they fail, we don’t have much control over the middle of the country or deep south, so we need to build strong numbers in states more liberal to start with.
But honestly I’m ready to jump ship. I could educate and have my future children MUCH CHEAPER in Western Europe. Why oh why should me Black Man support this nonsense any longer? Ha, I’m African first and American second, confirming my 2nd class status here anyway.
I can’t even get Steven A Smith on Cable TV to say all this nonsense on the Right about Obama is RACIALLY MOTIVATED!
Its hopeless GOOD NIGHT NOW!