I'm glad you wrote to the DNC during the campaign, although it would have been more effective if thousands of us had done that same thing.
I tried several tweet storms (or whatever-the-hell they're called) to every media/news/reporter/pundit person I could think of, on the air and in print. About their absolutely shitty coverage. Might have been more effective if I hadn't been pretty much alone doing it.
I remember back in 2005 when the DNC was looking for a new chairperson. They already had somebody picked out. They seemed to like Tim Roemer an awful lot. But he was a moderate Dem and not pro-choice, moderate - be nice! Be laid back! Don't make waves! Don't get nasty and in-yer-face! So the party powers conducted a "listening tour" across the country. Went to quite a few cities from coast-to-coast, holding public hearings.
I heard about the one here in L.A. and went to it. Patriotic Hall WAAAAY downtown, with its own little parking lot that filled up fast. I had to park blocks away. Arrived, no room in the big meeting room that probably held at least 200-300. Standing room only. People along the aisles and spilling out into the lobby. WAY too many people wanting to speak for two minutes each. There was a panel of DNCers onstage, filling a dais that stretched from one end of the stage to the other.
People took turns giving their public comments. EVERYBODY wanted Howard Dean. It was clear that he wasn't on anybody's short list up there on stage. They kept asking about Tim Roemer, and a few other forgettables. We were having NONE of it. Howard Dean's name kept coming up again and again and again, speaker after speaker after speaker. They passed out colored index cards, if you wanted Howard Dean you held up the green one. If you wanted Tim Roemer you held up the red one. If you wanted somebody else, you held up a blue card. They extended public comment on this two-hour event for an additional hour because there were so many of us. I was one of many leftovers throughout the building during this meeting who didn't get a chance to speak. I think there were maybe as many as FIVE people, TOTAL, who did have a chance to speak, who recommended Roemer or some other name. EVERYBODY ELSE THERE wanted Howard Dean. Adamantly and enthusiastically. Time came for the vote - hold up your card when your preferred candidate's name was called - and a SEA of green cards went up. There were names called where NO cards went up, at all. I think Tim Roemer got two or three votes. Howard Dean got HUNDREDS.
We later learned that this same thing happened at EVERY stop along this DNC listening tour. You could see the expressions on the faces of the party officials seated onstage. This was NOT the result they wanted or planned on, and you could tell by their flustered reactions. But by Jove we got Howard Dean as DNC chair. And what happened? We went from completely out in the wilderness in Washington to owning it ALL - House, Senate, AND White House by 2008.
I wish The Good Doctor would run again, but he's taken his name out of consideration by now. His 50-state strategy WORKED. It forced the Dems to look, and think, outside the damn Beltway, and beyond just the presumed "battleground states." Democrats were activated and encouraged - EVERYWHERE. And it would have worked this time, too, I'm convinced. There wouldn't be ANY voices raised now, complaining that Hillary's campaign never went to Wisconsin, for example. There would be none of this "meh, we're not gonna win in Louisiana anyway, so why try?" shit that almost literally handed a valuable open Senate seat back to the CONS without so much as even a single burp of objection. They left NO stone unturned on Howard Dean's watch and took nothing for granted. And it WORKED.
I don't know if Keith Ellison fully gets that or not. I don't know if Perez gets that, or any of the others do, either. You can bet your house that the flaccid milquetoast Donna Brazile doesn't get it, and Thank God she's just an interim chair (no wonder we didn't have anybody aggressively fighting for it in Louisiana for that last Senate campaign of this election cycle. The disgraceful wishy-washy DONNA BRAZILE was in charge. A banana slug would show more backbone than she does)! And I don't know if any of them is the scrappy fighter that Howard Dean was, and exactly what we need NOW.
And the masses of us need to speak up, and get out there and fight. In numbers too big to ignore, like the song says. Years ago I remember seeing some republi-CON party woman interviewed who pointed out her party's fundamental appeal: "we fight." At the time I thought - "yeah, whatever. Fight, fight, fight. All you guys do is fight." But by now I've realized - yeah! They FIGHT! And people LIKE that. We don't fight. I don't know why! And sadly, that's the attitude that prevails.
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