As some of you know, I am trying to organize Progressive Brooklyn Dems. I have some contacts through organizing my wife and I did for protests against the RNC in New York, but now I am trying to recruit Kossacks. As described below the break, we got involved through a friend (the head of the Independent Neighborhood Democrats in Brooklyn) and were elected Democratic County Committee members. At the County Committee meeting we got our first real lesson in machine politics. Anyone who wants to be more involved in Brooklyn Politics, please read on.
My wife, Joy and I attended the Kings County (Brooklyn)Democratic County Committee meeting
in September. It was quite a lesson in corrupt machine politics. The "ruling" faction had the whole thing LITERALLY scripted and did all they could to prevent anyone who didn't have a role in the script from speaking out. The script was rushed through with half hearted voice votes ringing out "ayes" on cue like "amens" in a lackluster sermon. It was a study in what is wrong with politics, particularly Democratic politics, these days. Those who hold power now act not to further the party or the community, but rather to further their hold on their power...even if it is almost meaningless power as the county committee is 9 years out of every 10. If I were to have invented a cheesy parody of what I would have thought corrupt machine politics was like, I would have imagined exactly what I saw last night. Except even in my wildest, most cynical imaginings I would not have thought they would actually have had a script for their pawns to read off. I will give the party machine some credit, though: the charade was conducted very efficiently; the "in" crowd was at least representative not only of many of the assembly districts, but also racially; and they at least admitted in their introduction that the evening would seem to the newcomers as akin to a "passion play."
I have been concerned about (and doing my best to bridge) the unfortunate disconnect between the Democratic party and the voters/community. At the County Committee meeting I realized that there is also a disconnect between the party and itself, at least in Brooklyn. Those of us who have taken the additional step of entering an elected position (county committee) still find ourselves ignored by those who are one step up on the party ladder. How can the party connect with the voters when the party insiders don't even connect with the party regulars? It is a recipe for apathy in the ranks, which is bound to translate to a lack of interaction with the community and thus apathy on the part of voters. The result is that despite the 5:1 ratio of registered Dems to registered Repubs in New York City, we have a Repub mayor, governor and state government. I am not sure if I even mind if the party insiders dominate the agenda in the county committee...for all I know they do a good
job of running things behind closed doors. But when it is done in such a blatant, exclusionary way, it means the death of populist politics and when the Dems lose their populism, they lose the election. As it was observed among some of us after the charade, this is why the Dems lose so many active members to the Greens and WFP. We don't give the populists and activists a place within our own party, so they become marginalized into splinter groups that in effect split the vote and give the Repubs more power than they would have if we at least gave the IMAGE of sharing power.
The bright points were the dissenting groups. I discover that Joy and I have become part of the dissidents in the Brooklyn Democratic Party. The assembly districts that spoke out the most in an attempt to either inject some reality into the charade, or at least inject some humor, were districts 44 and (our own) 52. Interestingly these are the districts that are the focal points of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) (44th) and Independent Neighborhood Democrats (our own IND) (52nd). These, coincidentally, have been the clubs that I have been attracted to anyway.
Little did I know that I had been sucked into the dissident faction.
On the dissident side was, most notibly, Ken Diamondstone (who I know has run for city council and is associated with Lambda Independent Democrats) who largely raised objections (inevitably squashed) to almost everything in
the "insider" script. Others who I am not familiar with vocally voted "nay" when the script called for "amens"...er, I mean "ayes"...and one wag fiercely and loudly called "abstain" for each vote. More quietly, State Assemblywoman Joan Millman spoke to those of us from the 52nd (her district) to console us by saying that our own district meeting will be considerably different.
This experience convinces me more than ever that corruption in our system is due largely to the lack of voter interest and participation, which in turn is encouraged by the corruption in our system. The repubs try to discourage voter turnout as much as they can because that usually helps them win, and insiders of BOTH parties discourage activist participation because it threatens their hold on power. To me the solution is that all of us should participate as much as we can. 527s like MoveOn take some power from groups like the Democratic Leadership Council. Clubs like IND and CBID take power from the local party machine. At our County Committee meeting only 200 out of 2000 (roughly) committeemembers showed up. If groups like IND and CBID and activists like Diamondstone could harness more of those 1800 who didn't show, then the "nay" votes could drown out the "ayes" and SOME power sharing would result. But as long as the voter is complacent and the activist splinters off to the seemingly more open, but not very effective, Green and WFP movements, the insiders will easily hold control and the Dems will continue to be the weaker, "girlie man" party compared with the Repubparty that can draw on the grassroots of the NRA and moral majority to reach
the community.
Hence my attempts to organize Progressive Dems in Brooklyn. I don't want to supplant the party insiders, but I want to shake things up, help out the Progressive clubs and candidates, and I want to fight to get Dems elected mayor, governor and to the state legislature.
Any Brooklyn Kossacks, please let me know if you are interested in joining my efforts. I can either add you to my email list of Brooklyn activists, or, if you prefer, I can give you info on the Independent Democratic Clubs in Brooklyn. Soon I hope to have a get together at my apartment if I can (we have a new baby, so there may be some problems there) and then maybe hook up with local Deaniacs and/or the IND club. So let me know if you are interested.