Then I have a “how to “ for you. It really is not hard, but it requires more then the ability to boo at a convention. Oh, conventions are fun but being a delegate is NOT going to change the party, getting involved at the local level, now that will have some impact.
How do you get involved? Well start by finding your local Democratic Central Committee, there is one in every county across the nation. Find out their meeting day and time. Show up to these meetings (usually really boring, sometimes fun, sometimes a bit unorganized), meet people, volunteer to help local candidates get elected.
Volunteer to work at registering voters, knock on doors, keep going to the meetings, find out what Democratic Clubs are near you, which ones you might be aligned with (for instance, we have a woman’s dem club, a Dean club, a latino club, clubs based on geography and many, many more). Join a club, help them to elect their endorsed local candidates.
Then get elected to your local Central Committee (in some places almost impossible, in some places very easy). In Santa Clara County our Central Committee is alloted 6 slots for each assembly district in our county, even districts that are only partially in our county. I have been on the central committee since 2000, sometimes having many people running from my district, or sometimes not even having six people run (which means you end up not being on the ballot but are elected as there are more spots then people running).
And help your local candidates, work for them, raise money for them, stay involved with the local party, go to your state convention. learn who is who, get involved with statewide Dem caucuses.
When you do these things you will learn the internal workings of the party, warts and all (yes there are many warts). You will learn far too much about candidates that you thought were great, or be surprised about candidates you thought were horrid.
Through all of this you can then CHANGE the party because the Democratic Party is not some corporation, it is you and me, it is us, and when the party is not providing us with the things we want we have to look at how much harder we have to work to change what we know must be changed.
It is not easy, and it is not quick. Booing is NOT going to do it, and it certainly is not going to help bring more progressive ideas to the party as behavior counts, so please remember that.
Just remember, attending a convention does little to nothing to change an institution as large as the Democratic Party, the old saying “all politics are local” says it all, get local, get involved and work, together, for that change we all want.
If you want change, then work for it, and I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail.